Hide and Seek
by Darkingfire
Summary: Strange berries appearing out of nowhere, eggs that don't so much hatch as transform, and a blond wannabe shinobi that can find them both seemingly without trying. The Village Hidden in the Leaves is in for some big changes, and no one can say if they'll be able to handle what those changes bring.
1. In the Beginning there was one

For Naruto Uzumaki, being alone was as normal as breathing. Granted, breathing didn't usually hurt when he watched the people around him laughing and joking and playing with each other, but then, it had almost gotten to the point where he didn't even feel the loneliness anymore either. At a whopping five years old, he had already inured himself to the fact that nobody wanted him, and only some people would even acknowledge him.

Still, he watched the parents come pick up his classmates from the Civilian Academy at the end of each school day; hiding behind the large bushes near the front doors so that they couldn't pretend not to see him as his heart ached for the same kind of love and attention that the other kids got. But then, who'd love the demon kid?

Naruto drank in the sight of such casual affection hungrily, barely even noticing when a dark figure dropped into place beside him.

"Hokage-sama requests your presence, Naruto-kun." The voice that spoke was slightly garbled by the mask the figure wore, but Naruto recognized it anyways.

"Five more minutes, Duck? Please?"

The pleading tone was the same as it was every week, and, just like every other week before this, Duck nodded silently and folded his long legs underneath him to crouch beside the boy, watching as parents and children alike streamed out of the Academy gates and back to their daily lives.

Eventually Naruto sighed and stood up, brushing dead leaves and dirt off of his backside as he turned to Duck.

"'Kay, I'm ready."

Duck tilted his head to one side, observing the blond before him for a moment, before turning around and gesturing towards his back.

"Climb on."

Eyes as big as saucers, Naruto did as he was told, and a scream of utter delight rang through the early evening air as Duck launched the two of them into the air and onto the roof.

Normally Duck would simply take his hand and shunshin them both to the tower in a blur that made Naruto feel mildly sick. But this, this was _amazing_! Naruto's whoops of glee echoed across the village as Duck roof hopped toward the Hokage tower, and even though a ceramic mask covered the ANBU's face an aura of smug satisfaction radiated from him.

With one final leap, Duck launched the two of them toward the brick wall of the tower, Naruto screaming in one ear as he clung to his only lifeline. Foot met brick, and with hardly a pause Duck was running up the side of the tower, dodging around windows until he got to the top window and swung both of them in, depositing Naruto on the floor in front of the desk with a small flourish.

Hiruzen Sarutobi winced, then smiled as the shriek of terror turned into a scream of pure joy, getting louder as the source approached his window, then becoming deafening as a black and orange blur swept into the room and came to a halt in front of his desk.

The scream turned into ecstatic laughter as Naruto jumped around, unable to keep still in the wake of such an adrenaline rush.

"That was _amazing!_" the boy cried, bouncing around the composed ANBU member, "Can we do that again? How did you stick to the wall? _Please_ can we do that again!"

"Naruto." Sarutobi tried, knowing before the first syllable left his mouth that it was a hopeless case.

"Can you do that on anything? Can you teach me? I wanna learn how to walk on walls too! And then how you just _swooped_ in the window! I thought we were gonna crash, but you just went like _swish!_ And then we didn't! _That was so cool!_"

"Naruto!" the Hokage tried again, and this time Duck physically picked the chattering blond up and set him down again in front of the desk, standing behind him with his hands on his shoulders so that he couldn't keep bouncing.

Sarutobi sent Duck a grateful look. "Hello Naruto."

Naruto's enthusiasm bubbled on.

"Hiya Jiji! Did you see that? Did you see us? Duck is so _cool!_ He just ran here, all the way from the school, and we went on the roofs and everything, and I wonder if anyone saw us! And then he went up the wall and it was scary, but I wasn't scared, and he just _ran up the wall_. Can you teach me to do that? I wanna learn how to do that, an' then me and Duck'll have a race! Right Duck?"

The blond twisted against the firm hold Duck had on his shoulders to peer up at the masked face of the ANBU, waiting eagerly for some sort of confirmation as the mask tilted down to look at him.

"Hnn."

Beaming happily, Naruto turned back just in time to see Sarutobi smothering a smile behind one of the wide sleeves of his robe.

"Wall walking is a little to advanced for you right now, Naruto-kun," The old man said, raising one eyebrow at the pout that threatened to consume the child's face. "Now, don't do that, how are you doing with the letters I showed you last week?"

The pout disappeared as Naruto puffed up his chest. "I can do 'em all now!"

"Really?" The old man looked suitably impressed, "Why don't you come over here and show me?"

Grinning happily, Naruto bounded over to Sarutobi and climbed into his lap, wriggling to get comfortable as the old man pulled over a fresh sheet of paper and a pencil.

Methodically, Naruto began to write out each of the letters of the alphabet, saying each one as he did and pausing occasionally to survey his handiwork.

"Z!" he cried happily, tossing the pencil down onto the desk and leaning back to allow the Hokage to survey his handiwork.

Sure enough, all twenty-six letters were written on the page in varying states of wiggly pencil lines. They were all, however legible, and Sarutobi smiled down at the boy in his lap.

"Very good Naruto!"

Carefully he lifted the boy out of his lap and onto the floor, standing in the process.

"Ramen?" The blond chirped curiously, watching as the Hokage settled the hat more comfortably onto his head.

Sarutobi nodded, "Just like I promised, you learned the letters, so we'll get ramen."

"Hooray!" A sudden burst of energy sent Naruto bouncing around the office in paroxysms of joy before he was back at his jiji's side and tugging on his hand, doing his best to pull to old man through the door and out of the tower.

"Naruto slow down!" Sarutobi laughed as he gently disengaged his hand from the boy's and turned to move some of the more sensitive paperwork on his desk into a drawer that could only be opened with the proper application of blood and chakra. "I promise you, the ramen isn't going anywhere."

Naruto pouted again and folded his arms across his chest in such an exaggerated manner that it looked like the boy was trying to give himself a hug.

"There." The Hokage said, turning away from his desk with a satisfied air, "Let's go kiddo."

Naruto chattered happily all the way to Ichiraku's, alternately bouncing in circles around the Hokage and swinging from his hand as he told Sarutobi about anything and everything that popped into his head, from the latest dream he'd had, to how he'd been wandering around the village and found a great new star watching spot, to asking what was wrong with a certain kunoichi that he'd seen walking around in just a mesh shirt, and if he was _sure_ that those were really supposed to be there?

That last comment made the Hokage groan into his beard and assure the boy that yes, those were supposed to be there, and could he please not bring them up again, since they were usually a sensitive topic with most women.

Thankfully, they arrived at Ichiraku's before Sarutobi had to answer _that_ particular question, and the scent of ramen completely distracted the boy from that borderline dangerous line of questioning.

The Birds and the Bees talk was _not _one the old man was planning on having with a five year old, orphan or not, budding ninja notwithstanding.

As usual, Teuchi made friendly small talk with the two of them as the broth simmered, and as the old man and his surrogate grandson ate the three of them laughed and joked together. The two adults paid closer attention to the young boy than he ever realised as they both silently reaffirmed their status as protector and father figure to the child, and comrades in metaphorical arms to each other.

That evening, after walking Naruto home and making sure that the boy was safely tucked into bed and asleep Sarutobi Hiruzen made his way back to the Hokage Tower, puffing pensively on his pipe. He knew that Naruto wanted to become a ninja, and eventually the next Hokage. However, Sarutobi himself was getting far too old to properly maintain the position. A successor would have to be found soon, but unfortunately there were only two people he would trust with the position. One of them was currently running a vital spy network (whenever he wasn't conducting 'research' for his books), and the other was gambling her life away and attempting to drink herself into an early grave.

He sighed, absently returning the greeting of his receptionist as he walked into his office and settled with only the bare traces of weariness into the comfortable chair behind the heavy desk that was currently overflowing with paperwork.

The fact that retiring would make all the daily paperwork someone else's problem could only be a bonus.

"Hokage-sama,"

Hiding his surprise, (he'd been so deep in thought he hadn't sensed anyone enter his office), Sarutobi looked up and relaxed.

"Dog, welcome back. How did the mission go?"

Dog's clothes were travel-stained, but there was no sign of weariness in the ANBU's demeanour as he stood in front of his leader's desk.

"All in all, it went well. The target was panicking, so there was a clear trail to follow..."

Dog continued with his debriefing, and the Hokage listened intently until the man was done.

"Well," He said, settling back in his chair, "That was well done. Thank you Dog."

Dog nodded silently, and Sarutobi sighed internally. It'd been five years, and still the man in front of him hadn't recovered. Hopefully he would before Naruto became a genin. Teaching the son of his own teacher might help the man heal.

Or it would make him worse. Still, Sarutobi hoped it would be the former and not the latter. Konoha couldn't afford to lose such a talented ninja.

Although... Sarutobi smirked as a sudden thought occurred to him, and he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk.

"Dog, this was your fifteenth mission in a row outside the village, correct?"

Slowly Dog nodded, trying to ignore the vague feeling of unease that had begun to play with the back of his mind.

"Well then." The old man continued, "I think it's high time you took some time off. As of now, you're officially unavailable for any missions outside the village."

Dog started, distress plainly obvious even without being able to see his face.

"But Hokage-sama, the ANBU-"

"Will be fine without you for a few weeks." Sarutobi interrupted firmly. "In the meantime, you can either take a vacation or take one of two light guard duty missions."

Dog was silent for a moment, then, his voice resigned said, "I'll take one of the guard duties."

Sarutobi smirked. Dog had taken the bait hook, line and sinker. "Good. Then starting tomorrow you will be taking over Otter's shifts when guarding one Uzumaki Naruto."

Dog stiffened, but didn't argue, and when Sarutobi dismissed him he disappeared in a mass of swirling leaves.


	2. On camping and dummies

As per her his orders, Dog followed Naruto around in the mornings and he had to admit that it was nice not to have to worry about getting a kunai in the back, even if watching the blond was slowly driving him crazy.

The way the villagers treated the poor kid was like they were purposely trying to drive him away, but the kid, with all the resilience of youth and a hearty helping of his mother's spunk, just kept going.

He ignored almost everything the villagers threw at him, keeping a wide smile plastered to his face until he was out of sight of them all. Even when he allowed the mask to drop, the tears never lasted long, as he seemed to just forget about what had happened in favour of running around to explore the less visited areas of the village.

Indeed, the Hokage monument and the older, disused training grounds on the mountain behind it were some of his favourite places to go and explore, and to Dog's everlasting surprise the kid seemed to have a danger sense that went far and beyond sensing immediate danger. It was almost like he could identify which areas of the training grounds were trapped, and avoid them accordingly.

Though Dog had to groan as he watched Naruto head directly into an area of the trees that was rigged with ninja wire and exploding tags. Apparently his danger sense wasn't _quite_ as well honed as it had seemed.

A quick Shunshin had Dog in front of the child, and he shook his head warningly at him before flicking a small rock up into his hand and tossing it behind himself, knowing it would hit the trigger as he scooped up the boy and darted forward a good ways. Hopefully out of range of any shrapnel.

The boy watched with wide eyes as a good sized section of the forest detonated, blowing wood chunks, dirt and rocks everywhere and the shockwave blowing Dog's spiked silver hair forward so that it looked more like a cockatiel than ever.

"_Wow!_" The boy breathed as the last echoes of the blast died away, then pouted in disappointment as Dog put him back down.

"Be more careful." Was all the man said before disappearing again.

"Okay!" Naruto called loudly, knowing that the man who'd been introduced to him as Dog couldn't have gone far before resuming his exploration and forgetting about him.

Weeks passed in much the same way, and though Dog couldn't bring himself to request being put back on fully active duty, neither could he bring himself to have much interaction with the child that so closely resembled his beloved sensei. So he continued guarding Naruto, but stayed in the shadows, silently envying Duck the way he could interact with the boy with such ease.

Still, Naruto seemed to know when he was around and chattered at him endlessly, never seeming to be bothered by the lack of response, or indeed, the lack of anything that let him know for sure that Dog was even there. Dog chalked it up to the fact that the kid was so painfully lonely that he didn't even care if there was someone there or not, as long as he could pretend that someone was actually listening to him.

So Dog did the next best thing. The next time October tenth rolled around, he slipped into Naruto's apartment and left a small package on his kitchen table with a simple tag that read only _Happy Birthday_. Seeing the blond running around in the same goggles that his old teammate had worn until his death sent a pang through Dog, but the look of ecstatic joy on his face was well worth it.

Dog hadn't realized until just then that that had been the boy's first birthday gift from someone other than the Hokage.

Many more months passed, and eventually Dog was comfortable enough around the boy to make himself plainly visible when they were out on Naruto's expeditions. It also seemed to put the boy at ease, since he knew that the ANBU wouldn't let anything, or anyone hurt him.

More time passed, and Duck disappeared from Naruto's guard detail for reasons that Naruto could never wrangle out of the Hokage, leaving Dog and Otter as Naruto's two guardians.

Dog was almost relieved when the kid entered the Ninja Academy, but the sight of Naruto's tearstained face when he came on duty after his first day made his heart ache.

"Hi Dog." Naruto mumbled, wiping his face with the ratty sleeves of his bright orange jumpsuit.

Dog nodded a greeting, then, "I did warn you they wouldn't treat you any differently..."

Naruto sighed dejectedly. "I know, but I thought that maybe you were wrong. I thought that since we were all gonna be awesome ninja, they'd _have_ to treat me better..."

Dog sighed internally. The kid really was hopeless. He just couldn't understand that human nature wouldn't change overnight, no matter what he did. Sighing again, Dog glanced around and noticed a backpack that looked like it had been stuffed full.

"Going somewhere?" Dog inquired, and Naruto nodded.

"Landlord-teme kicked me out. He said I hadn't paid rent for too long, so I had to get out. He let me grab a bag and some of my stuff, but that was it. I figured I'd camp out behind the Hokage monument for a few nights, then talk to Jiji about helping me find a new place."

Naruto grabbed the bag and slung it over his shoulder, grumbling under his breath about how he'd paid rent for the next four months, since he usually paid ahead when he got his stipend and how that stupid landlord could keep his shitty apartment.

Dog leapt onto the nearest roof and headed off toward the training ground he knew Naruto had been talking about when he'd mentioned camping. The small creek back there was teaming with fish, and the trees would make adequate shelter for the boy. What Dog was really worried about was the boy finding a new apartment. The only reason he'd been in that apartment complex to begin with was because the council had ordered that man to house the Jinchuriki, but now that he'd kicked Naruto out, there was a very good chance that he would not be able to find any other place to live.

Dog altered his course slightly. First stop then was the Shinobi library. There were some books that could help Naruto make his stay outdoors more comfortable.

Surprisingly, Naruto managed to beat the ANBU up to the training grounds behind the Hokage monument, but Dog chalked it up to his detour to the library and Naruto's knowledge of how to get just about anywhere in the village as quickly as possible.

It looked like Naruto had already begun to gather firewood, so Dog laid the books next to where the blond's backpack was leaning against a tree and took to the trees. There was still a few hours of light left, and he wanted to see if Naruto could manage to get a comfortable camp set up in that time.

He was already showing promise. Firewood was gathered with quick efficiency, and stones were brought from the creek to form a two layered ring on cleared dirt. A fish trap was built with more stones and a few sharpened sticks, then left to do its work while Naruto went back to his camp and built the sticks into a good tepee that would light well.

Until he realized that he didn't have anything to light the wood.

Dog couldn't help grinning under his mask as the shouted curses rose from the blond to his perch in a nearby pine tree. He had to hand it to him, the kid was inventive.

Releasing some of the chakra in his feet, Dog stepped onto the trunk of the tree and began to slide down, the chakra acted to help him regulate his fall as well and keep his feet from catching on the bark. It seemed a lot like he was freefalling, and at fifteen feet from the ground, Dog launched himself from the trunk of the tree, bounced off another and landed directly in front of the cursing boy, who swallowed his next few curses and looking surprisingly like someone had just slapped him with a fish.

Dog almost lost it then and there, but laughter was not a good idea when you had on the mask, so he formed a few hand seals, took a deep breath and blew a small, steady stream of flame onto the dried wood.

Flames licked the wood, caught, and a gleeful whoop of thanks from Naruto sent a rush of satisfaction through Dog as Naruto stacked more wood onto the cheerfully crackling fire.

It would take a while for the fire to be hot enough to cook on, so Naruto headed off to see about scavenging some wild fruits he knew was in the area and Dog retreated to his tree again, keeping an eye on both the blond and the fire.

"C'mon..." Naruto grumbled as he ducked under a low hanging branch, "I know there were some raspberry bushes around here somewhere..."

Weaving between trees and hopping over random fallen branches, Naruto idly noted where some of the dead wood had fallen. He'd have to take some more of it back to camp with him. It'd really suck to have the fire go out in the middle of the night and not have a way to light it for something to eat in the morning.

And since Dog was only on duty in the afternoon and evening, Otter would be here in the morning and Naruto knew that she wouldn't re-light the fire for him. She'd always been the most stand-offish of the three ANBU he'd known.

"HA!" A triumphant shout split the early twilight air, and Naruto darted to his left as he spotted the brilliant red of ripe raspberries hanging from a nearby bush.

Carefully he picked the berries into the front of his shirt, holding the hem out to form a sort of hammock that he filled most of the way before heading back to camp, pulling a few leaves off nearby trees as he went.

Although now that he thought about it, weren't raspberry bushes supposed to have thorns?

Shrugging, Naruto scooped a shallow hole into the soft ground near the fire and lined it with the leaves he'd gathered on his way back before pouring the berries into the makeshift bowl and leaving again to go check on the fish trap.

Naruto tried not to cringe as he killed four of the largest fish in the trap and gutted them the way Duck had shown him a few years earlier, dropping the guts back into the fish trap for the fish left in there to eat. Spitting the fish on sticks and thrusting the sticks into the ground next to the fire started them cooking, and Naruto had a chance to relax now that warmth and food were both guaranteed.

The disgust he'd felt at killing another living thing faded as the smell of cooking fish began to fill the air, and Naruto glanced around in the heightening gloom, trying to catch a glimpse of the silver hair that would betray Dog's position to him. Naturally, he saw nothing, and with a sigh he raised his voice.

"Hey! Dog! Come eat!"

Holding his breath, Naruto hoped that the man would take him up on the offer.

This wasn't the first time Naruto had gone camping, and as usual it was a toss-up as to whether Dog would join him for the meal or not. The man seemed to delight in being unpredictable, and, to a lesser extent, driving Naruto crazy with that unpredictability.

A soft rustling of leaves across the fire from Naruto made his heart leap, and a wide grin broke across his face as Dog took a seat near enough for Naruto to reach out and touch.

"Here," The blond said, holding out a maple leaf with a pile of raspberries in the center, "The fish are almost done too."

Dog took the leaf and Naruto grabbed his own handful and began scarfing them down, pausing momentarily at the slightly spicy flavour before shrugging it off as an idiosyncrasy of that particular bush and continuing to eat.

"Naruto, stop." Dog's voice cracked like a whip through the evening air, and Naruto froze. "These berries aren't raspberries."

"But they look exactly like raspberries!" Naruto protested, holding up a berry as an example despite the fact that Dog had his own pile right in front of him.

"Yes, but they taste nothing like real ones. Put those aside, we'll eat the fish, and I want you to tell me immediately if you start feeling strange. Those berries might be poisonous."

Naruto paled drastically and hastily put his own (greatly diminished) pile of berries to one side. "Okay."

"In the morning if you're still alive, I'd like you to show me where you picked those berries from. We'll probably need to take a sample to the Yamanakas for testing."

The blond hesitantly nibbled at one of his fish, and for a moment Dog regretted the 'if you're still alive' comment.

"Who're the Yamanakas?"

Still curious, good. Coherent, too. Dog nodded to himself, "The Yamanakas are one of the ninja clans of Konoha. They have many jutsus for their mind, but they also collectively seem to have a green thumb. They grow many of the fruits and vegetables in their greenhouses that are sold during the winter."

"Ohhhh." The boy paused for a few moments, "So why take a sample of some random fruit to them?"

Dog resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands. For all that the blond could have moments of genius, they were far offset by his moments of idiocy.

"Because this fruit does not grow natively in the Fire Country. In fact, aside from their resemblance to raspberries, I've never seen or tasted this kind of fruit before. The Yamanakas will more than likely be able to identify it, as well as tell us where it grows natively."

Understanding dawned on the boy again, but he didn't say anything else and the two finished their fish in peace.

When Naruto made to unpack his bedroll from his bag he noticed two books that he'd never seen before sitting next to it. The bedroll practically unrolled itself, and Naruto dragged it closer to the fire so that he could see the titles of the books while laying in it.

_Roughing it: For Dummies_, and _Survival Techniques: For Dummies_. Naruto let out a startled laugh at the titles, then glanced around. Dog had melted back into the trees, as expected, so Naruto flipped open _Roughing it_ and began to read.

His brain was so full of diagrams on how to build this sort of shelter, or that sort of shelter that he never noticed when he drifted off to sleep, his head cushioned on his arms and resting lightly on the book.  
-

AN: Thanks to everyone who read the first chapter, and especially thanks to everyone who faved and/or followed this story.

I started this as an exercise to see if I could find a way around the things that bothered me the most in a lot of the other Naruto-Pokemon Crossovers, and so far I think I'm doing all right. I do not have a Beta, and I have an unreasonable love of commas, so please forgive me if you think I use them too much. Trust me, I am working on it.

Drop me a review if you think anyone's too OOC, or if you have any major issues with the story so far, but keep in mind the fact that I've only read the first thirteen volumes of Naruto. (Although I have read a crap-ton of Naruto Fanfics, so I think I've got a pretty good idea of what happens all the way up through the chunin exams, which is where most people stop writing.)

Anyways, thanks very much for reading;

Darkingfire


	3. Of memories and truancy

To Naruto's surprise, when he woke up the next morning Dog was sitting on the other side of the fire and more fish were sizzling next to the fire.

"What're you d-doooooing?" Naruto yawned, pushing himself up onto his knees and stretching hugely.

"You need to show me where you picked those berries." The silver haired ANBU reminded him, and Naruto brightened.

"Oh yeah. Hey! I'm not dead! Guess they weren't poisonous!"

Smiling happily the blond scrambled out of his bedroll and grabbed one of the fish clad sticks, tearing into the hot meat with little concern for the heat in the interest of filling his growling stomach.

Dog waited patiently for Naruto to finish his fish and slip his shoes on before standing and motioning for the blond to lead the way.

Half an hour later he was regretting that decision to the bottom of his heart. Maybe he should have just summoned Pakkun to follow the scent of the berries to their point of origin... it certainly would have been easier that following the boy in front of him as he floundered through the undergrowth. Plus, Dog was almost certain that they been going in circles for the last fifteen minutes.

"Found 'em!" Naruto shouted, and plunged through the undergrowth to one side as Dog sighed wearily behind him. This would be the fourth time Naruto had 'found' the bush he'd picked the berries from.

Fortunately for Naruto's continued well being and Dog's mental health, this time Naruto had found the bush, something that made Dog frown beneath his mask. They had passed this place a few times already, and this bush had definitely not been here. But the ground wasn't disturbed, so it wasn't something that someone had simply placed here, and a quick "Kai." confirmed that the bush wasn't a genjutsu.

Dog's frown deepened as he pulled out a kunai and sliced off a good sized branch of the plant. It was nothing like regular raspberry brambles. This plant had wide, spearhead shaped leaves that were slightly glossy, no thorns, and was an actual bush, rather than viney brambles. The Yamanakas would definitely have to look at this.

A quick glance up at the position of the sun told Dog that there was an easy way to get rid of Naruto before he had to go over to the mind-walkers clan house, and when the blond realized he had less than half an hour to get to the Academy he let out a yelp like a scared puppy and took off, desperately trying to swipe dirt off his jumpsuit and pull twigs out of hair at the same time.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Dog took a couple more foliage samples before digging up a bit of root and placing it all into several small bags before leaping into the trees and back in the general direction of the village.

Luckily, the Yamanaka clan head owned a flower shop, and so was almost guaranteed to be up at this time, but since Dog was supposed to be off duty at the moment, he had another pit stop to make.

Not a single civilian and very few Shinobi noticed the silver haired man in a mask vanish into a nondescript building, and even fewer took notice of the silver haired man in a more fitted mask that only covered half his face who emerged a few minutes later carrying what looked like several grocery bags one hand. Taking a moment to look around and get his bearings, the man reached behind him with his free hand and pulled out a bright orange book, opened it to the middle and began to walk as he read, expertly dodging people and inanimate objects as he walked.

Pushing open the door to the flower shop made a small bell jingle, and he stowed his book back in his weapon's pouch as the scent of chilled flowers filled his nose.

"Kakashi?"

The silver haired man turned toward the counter, "Hey Yamanaka-san. Got a bit for a puzzle?"

Inoichi Yamanaka raised an eyebrow and beckoned the younger man over to the counter.

"What have you got for me?"

Kakashi set the bags on the counter and watched as Inoichi started looking at the plant matter inside them.

"Naruto found a bush up near the Hokage monument. It was bearing raspberry like fruit, but doesn't taste anything like any raspberry I've ever tasted."

The Yamanaka clan head glanced up sharply at the mention of Naruto, then frowned and looked back at the samples in the bags.

"Good of you to keep the samples separated."

Kakashi hmmed as Inoichi pulled out one of the berries and pinched it into goo, sniffing it carefully.

"Spicy? But..." the blond man muttered, then glanced at Kakashi again. "Are they poisonous?"

Kakashi shrugged, "They didn't hurt Naruto, and I had a few before I realized they weren't raspberries with no ill effects."

Inoichi hmmed thoughtfully, then licked at the berry mush on his fingers, tilting his head to one side as he rolled the flavour around his mouth.

"Spicy and dry..." He muttered, wiping his juicy finger off on the apron he wore around the shop before turning back to Kakashi.

"I have no clue what this is." He said plainly. "I've never seen anything like this anywhere in the Elemental Nations." He paused, then frowned, "Well, I have, but not all together."

Kakashi raised his one visible eyebrow, and Inoichi huffed.

"Look," he said, picking up the branch Kakashi had cut off the main bush, "These leaves, they look like rhododendron leaves, but the bark is like what you'd find on a cherry tree. Then there's the berries, which look like raspberries, but taste more like a juicy sort of peppercorn that makes you thirsty."

Kakashi frowned, "Could someone be genetically engineering something like this?"

Inoichi tossed the branch back onto the counter. "It's possible, but what would be the point? Serve it at a bar so that people buy more Sakè?" He shook his head.

Kakashi sighed, then shrugged. "All right then. Thanks Yamanaka-san."

Inoichi narrowed his blue eyes at Kakashi, "Call me Inoichi, Kakashi. You might as well. And d'you mind if I keep this stuff? I want to see if I can cultivate it, and this branch makes as good a cutting as any."

The cockatiel head nodded, "Go ahead, Inoichi-san."

"Thanks"

Kakashi merely grunted, and left the shop feeling vaguely disgruntled. Now he had all day while Naruto was at the academy to read Icha Icha Paradise, and he had almost zero desire to do so.

Kakashi froze in horror as that last thought ran through his head. That's it, those berries really were poisonous.

Squashing the urge to just head home and sleep, Kakashi pulled his book back out of his weapons pouch and set his feet to wandering, only paying enough attention to where he was going to avoid running into anything.

It wasn't until his feet stopped of their own accord that Kakashi put the bright orange book away again and stared down at the stone that held such great significance to him.

"Hey Obito, Sensei..."  
-

Naruto couldn't wait until class let out. Though he'd thought that having ninja instructors would be a lot different than civilian teachers, apparently he'd been wrong. This teacher, Daikoku Takama, seemed to hate him with a fervour that even the civilian teachers never exhibited. Luckily for Naruto, Daikoku kept himself to scathing remarks about Naruto's reluctance to answer questions and ridiculing the boy for any slight misunderstanding. Anything that went wrong in the classroom was instantly blamed on the blond boy, and certain people in the classroom were more than willing to take advantage of that.

Yes, Naruto could _not_ wait until class let out. So, under the guise of going to the bathroom, Naruto made a break for it, slipping out the front doors and across the yard before starting to sprint for his apartment.

It was only when he glanced at the Hokage monument that he remembered his eviction and where he'd slept last night, and a quick change of direction had him running for the path that would lead up behind the monument and towards his camp. Hopefully Daikoku-sensei wouldn't send any of the ninja truant officers to track him down. He wouldn't stand a chance of outrunning them yet, not without any sort of training.

Naruto was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't see the egg shaped lump in the underbrush until his foot hit it and he went tumbling ass over teakettle.

"Owww..." the blond whined pitifully, staring up at the bright blue of the morning sky.

Staring up at the sky was strangely relaxing, so for a while Naruto just laid there, watching the sky and the drifting clouds until almost idly, he remembered that he'd tripped. But over what? He hadn't seen any roots sticking out of the ground, and he wasn't so clumsy he'd trip over his own feet...

Groaning slightly, Naruto levered himself back to his feet and backtracked a ways, looking around for what might have tripped him. Had it been round? Or was that the lump on his head talking?

He poked around for a little bit, then shrugged and turned back towards his camp. Apparently he was still clumsy enough to trip over his own feet.

As if to prove him wrong, something round appeared in front of his feet and sent him tumbling again with a high pitched yelp.

"Ouch ouch owwww!" Naruto didn't bother staying laying down this time, instead pushing himself into a sitting position and looking around for what it had been this time.

For a moment, he couldn't see anything except for a vaguely round shape that was coloured exactly the same way everything around it was. Then, slowly it began to change, almost as if it was being coloured in by a giant crayon. A black triangle first, with rounded points, then a hot orange outline, and then the rest of it filled in with an orange-ish yellow that was reminiscent of buttercups.

Naruto could see the shape much more clearly now, and for all that he was an idiot sometimes, there was absolutely no way what was in front of him right now was what it looked like.

He sat down on the pine needle covered ground with a soft thump. It _looked_ like an egg. But that was ridiculous. There was no possible way for an egg to be that _big_! Slightly smaller than a basketball, the egg simply sat there on the forest floor, radiating an aura of calm innocence.

And since when was that even possible! Eggs couldn't radiate anything! Except yolk and white, but that was only if you threw 'em hard enough.

Right, so. The egg was not radiating anything. Naruto nodded firmly at that conclusion, then reached out and poked the egg gently before whipping his hand back like he'd been bitten.

It was warm. Surprisingly so, since the air was cool with the onset of fall and the sun had yet to permeate through the dense trees with enough intensity to warm anything.

Slowly, gingerly, Naruto reached out again and caressed the egg's surface, then picked it up and sat it in his lap so he could examine it in greater detail.

It was lighter than he'd expected, though still heavy enough to tell him that it wasn't empty, but that was about as much as he could tell just from picking it up and looking at it.

Well, that and that it was no bird egg, but come on, he snorted, even an idiot could tell it wasn't a bird egg.

Carefully he caressed the egg again and realized with a thrill of horror that the smooth shell was noticeably cooler than it had been when he'd first touched it.

"Oh oh oh, not good. So not good. Eggs have to stay warm, right? What do I do? I can't sit on it, I can't-"

Naruto cut himself off, smacking himself in the forehead with such force he almost toppled over backwards before placing the egg carefully onto the ground and standing. The orange jumpsuit was unzipped and the black shirt he wore under it lifted up. The strange egg was placed against his skin, the shirt was tucked back down and the jumpsuit was, with some difficulty, rezipped.

Naruto was satisfied. He might look like a total dork, but at least the egg was warm, and from the feel of it, going to stay that way.

Moving slowly so that he wouldn't trip and break the egg, Naruto made his way the rest of the way back to his camp only to groan internally at the sight that met his eyes.  
-

AN;

All right! Chapter three is now up! Awesome, huh? Anyways, thanks to everyone for reading and following/favoriting. It's very encouraging to see the response this fic has gotten. Seriously, I've been in awe.

Chapter four is started, and will probably be up in a few hours. *nods*

Please, I really hate to start this crap already, but I'd really appreciate a review. Maybe even two. Just, you know, to let me know what you think. Am I making Naruto to unbelieveable? What about Kakashi or the Hokage? I know there's not much to go on, but I'd very much like some feedback, especially since any reviewers will take the place of the Beta I don't have.


	4. The lure of eggs

"Hiya Jiji!" Naruto chirped innocently, doing his best to exude innocence.

Sarutobi Hiruzen didn't buy it for one second.

"Naruto, why aren't you at the Academy?"

The blond flinched, then forced a grin on to his face and reached behind him to rub sheepishly at his hair.

"Ah, heh heh... Daikoku-sensei said that I was so awesome that I could just go home early today!"

"Uh huh..." Sarutobi looked sceptical, "So why does he have the truant officers out looking for you then?"

Naruto's eyes widened, "Ah, um... extra training?"

"Ri-ight."

"Waitaminute Jiji, how'd you know I was up here?"

"Dog mentioned that you were staying up here since your landlord evicted you."

Naruto grumbled under his breath. Since when was Dog such a loudmouth anyways?

"Naruto..." the Hokage sighed, sitting down on a stump that Naruto could have sworn wasn't there before. "You can't start cutting classes already. It's only the second day."

Naruto scoffed, "Right. Like I'm going to learn anything from that asshole."

Sarutobi frowned, and Naruto jumped to his own defence. "Jiji, the guy hates me, even more than the civvie teachers did."

For a moment it looked like the old man was going to reply, but then his face twisted slightly and he looked more closely at Naruto, his mouth working slightly.

"Naruto? What is wrong with your stomach?"

Naruto looked down at himself, then let out a sheepish laugh and unzipped his jumpsuit, sitting down and lifting up his shirt to reveal the egg he'd found.

"I found this on my way back. It's pretty tough; I tripped over it twice before I actually saw it. I wanted to keep it to see what hatched from it."

The old man's eyes widened. "May I see it?"

Naruto nodded, scrambling to his feet, "Sure."

Sarutobi's examination was much more thorough than Naruto's had been, as he prodded at various points of the shell, turned it over and over in his hands, and even lifted it to his ear to listen to it.

Through it all the egg remained unresponsive and Naruto watched him with hawk-like intensity, only seeming to relax once the Hokage had handed the egg back to him and he could tuck it back under his shirt.

"It's a bird egg, I think." Sarutobi said, then frowned at Naruto when the boy slapped one hand to his face. "What?"

"Jiji, look at it. It's too big. It can't possibly be a bird egg."

"There are birds in Grass country that lay very large eggs." Sarutobi returned calmly.

Naruto's eye twitched.

"All right," he said, "It's a bird egg. I'm still gonna keep it."

Sarutobi nodded, "Let me know when it hatches and we'll go to a vet to see what it needs to eat, all right?"

Naruto grinned up at his surrogate grandfather.

"All right!"

"In the mean time," Sarutobi continued, pretending not to notice how Naruto's face fell, "You need to get back to class."

"Noooooo... anything but that, please Jiji, don't send me back to class with that guy, he hates me!"

Sarutobi remained unmoved. "Get going Naruto."

Grumbling, the blond zipped his jumpsuit back up over his shirt and the egg and started back through the forest down the slope to the village proper.

"Otter." Sarutobi's voice was quiet, but in a brief flicker a woman stood before him, her white mask decorated with swirls of paint that depicted an otter's face.

"Keep an eye on Daikoku. Don't let anything happen to the egg and report to me after Dog comes on duty. I want to know exactly what goes on in that classroom."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

A swirl of leaves, and the Hokage was alone in Naruto's camp again, the early afternoon sun filtering through the trees and turning everything a rich golden-green.

True to form, when Naruto re-entered the classroom Daikoku-sensei immediately noticed that Naruto had something underneath his shirt and demanded that Naruto hand it over.

This time the kid couldn't move fast enough to keep the chunin from yanking the zipper down and was barely fast enough to catch the egg before it hit the ground.

"No security toys in class, Uzumaki." The teacher said his eyes glinting in a way that told Naruto that the man knew very well it was alive, "I'll keep this at my desk."

Half the class was snickering at the thought of the exuberant blond still needing to walk around with a security toy, and the other half was laughing simply because Naruto was in trouble again.

"Oh, and detention for a week for skipping class." Daikoku added, and Naruto couldn't bring himself to protest. Not when Daikoku was holding the egg in one hand, where a single flick of his wrist would be all that it took to send the egg to the floor, or into a wall.

Miserably, Naruto stumped up the steps between the desks and slid into his seat, watching as the teacher strolled over to his desk and casually dumped the egg onto a pile of paperwork.

Inwardly, Naruto railed against the injustice. The egg was going to die! He could barely keep it warm when it was against his skin. Now that it was out in open air... Quietly he moaned, thumping his head onto the desk in front of him as if that would help him think of some way to rescue the egg from Daikoku's clutches.

It happened so fast that all Naruto heard was a yell of outrage that made him jerk his head out of the nest his arms had made for his head and look around wildly before his heart stopped.

The egg was gone, and Daikoku's face was rapidly approaching a shade of purple that Naruto was almost positive was unhealthy.

"U-ZU-MA-KI!" Daikoku roared, and for once Naruto was glad his seat was in the back of the classroom.

When Daikoku started up the stairs toward his seat, Naruto tensed, waiting until the man was almost within arm's reach before darting out of his seat and down to the main floor, hopping from desk to desk and ignoring the indignant cries of the other students. One more leap and he hit the floor running, out the door and down the hallway before Daikoku could even do more than bellow after him that he now had a full school year's worth of detentions.

"This way." A voice, female and familiar sounded from his right, and Naruto glanced over to see Otter standing in the doorway that led out of the academy building.

She was holding the egg.

Naruto followed.

It wasn't until they were at the Hokage's tower that Otter handed Naruto back the egg, and he cradled it to his chest as if it were more precious than ramen.

"Thanks." The boy said quietly, and Otter nodded silently as they passed through the front doors and began making their way up the stairs.

Naruto barely noticed the passing stairs. He was too busy being confused. Why was he being so protective of this egg? He had no idea what was in it, (though secretly he was hoping for something cool, like an alligator or a python) but he still worried about it, and wanted to protect it more than he'd wanted to protect anything before.

And when it had been gone? His reaction was pure panic. What the hell? Naruto frowned. Maybe it was just because it was new... yeah, that had to be it. When you got new things, you were more careful with 'em because they were new. This protective thing'd wear off on its own.

He nodded firmly and stepped into the Hokage's office with Otter, barely paying attention as she reported what had gone on in the classroom and why Naruto was once again out of class.

Even as out of it as he was, Naruto noticed how the old man's face tightened at how callously the teacher had handled the egg, and what he'd implied he'd do.

"Naruto," The old man said calmly, "I want you to take the next few weeks off school, all right? Keep that egg with you until it hatches, then we'll see about re-enrolling you at the Academy."

Naruto frowned. How was he supposed to be a ninja if he didn't go to the academy? On the other hand, if Daikoku got his hands on the egg after today, he'd smash it for sure.

He sighed, "Yeah yeah Jiji, I got it."

Sarutobi's expression softened. "I'm sorry Naruto. Perhaps I should care for the egg while you continue to go to class?"

Naruto jumped, his eyes wide. "No way!" he cried. "This guy's my alli-bird" he corrected himself hastily, "An' that means I've gotta take care of it!"

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at the boy's slip, stifling a chuckle at what he understood Naruto to be hoping for.

"Well, if you insist." He said instead, and smiled at Naruto's emphatic nods. "All right then. But that makes you responsible for it, all right? Even after it hatches, and it very well might not," he cautioned, "you will take care of whatever comes out of that egg until it is of an age to be able to take care of itself, agreed?"

"Deal!" the blond shouted, cradling the egg with one arm as he thrust his other finger into the air, pointing directly at the Hokage, "And just you watch, he's gonna be the best ninja alligator in the whole Fire Country!"

"I look forward to it." Sarutobi said as the blond marched out the door and closed it behind him with a muted thump.

It was all Sarutobi could do to activate the privacy seals on the office before bursting into howling laughter.  
-

AN-

All right you lot, I know this one's a bit shorter than the others, so please forgive me.

Also, as of this chapter, I will be updating weekly. I just wanted to get the first few chapters out there to see what kind of reception I got. Updates'll prob'ly be on Sundays, or early Monday morning, depending on when I remember, and I'll try to keep a two chapter buffer in case of emergencies.

As always, thanks for reading-

Darkingfire


	5. The joys of Orange

Ichiraku Teuchi was not a complicated man. He loved to cook for people, he loved his daughter, and he would do anything in his power to protect the blond boy that most people in the village would do anything to be rid of.

Naruto was one of his most loyal customers, and when he'd introduced the ramen chef to the _Hokage _of all people, the man had nearly fainted. Because of Naruto, the Hokage began to visit the little ramen stand whenever he had time; or whenever Naruto could con the old man into paying for him. Gradually, as more and more shinobi noticed the Hokage frequenting the stand, business picked up and to Teuchi's surprise the majority of his customers were now shinobi.

After all, not every civilian restaurant was good enough for the Hokage. Many shinobi had noticed that most of the civilians who had eaten there before Teuchi had begun serving Naruto now avoided the place like the plague. They couldn't let what seemed like the Hokage's favourite place close down now, could they?

And besides that, Teuchi could not only stomach what most shinobi did for a living better than most civilians, he had a better ear than a bartender and (almost) a more closed mouth then Ibiki during an interrogation.

In short, the shinobi trusted him. At least as much as any shinobi trusted anyone.

So when his favourite customer showed up in the middle of the school day with a large bulge under his jumpsuit, Teuchi simply took the boy's order and waited. After all, Naruto was chronically loud-mouthed, and anything interesting that happened to him would be hot news.

Sure enough, it only took two bowls before the boy glanced around and leaned forward, unzipping his jumpsuit a little.

"Hey, Teuchi-san. Wanna see something super cool?"

Teuchi raised an eyebrow and leaned over the counter in a conspiratorial manner as well, "Sure Naruto, what's up?"

Still glancing about shiftily, the boy raised his shirt and slipped out the absolute _biggest _egg Teuchi had ever seen out before placing it on the counter.

"I found it out on the Monument," Naruto explained, running his hands over the surface as if searching for cracks, "Jiji said that he thought it looked like a bird egg; y'know, like one of those big birds from Grass? But_ I_ think it's gonna be an alligator or something."

Teuchi's other eyebrow had long since joined its partner in his hairline. "That is some egg. Do you mind if I ...?"

He gestured at the egg, and Naruto obligingly lifted it so that he could take it.

"It's light!"

"Uh huh." The blond nodded, "I've been carrying it around for a while, and if I didn't have to make sure it didn't go down one of the legs of my jumpsuit I'd forget it was there."

"Hmm? What's going on?"

Ayame poked her head out from the kitchen looking over at the Naruto and her father with curiosity before seeing the egg her father held.

"Oh _wow!_ That is amazing!" wiping her hands on her apron, Ayame walked over. "Naruto, did you make this?"

"Nu-uh. Found it this morning. It's alive too."

The brunette's eyes widened, "Really?"

A nod, "Yeah, though Jiji said it might not hatch, so it might not be..." Naruto trailed off in thought for a moment then shrugged. "I think it is though. It was warm when I found it."

Ayame hmmed thoughtfully. "How've you been keeping it warm since then though?"

She took the egg from her father's hands, turning it over in her own and inspecting it carefully.

"Been keeping it in my jumpsuit." The boy replied, "An' you wouldn't believe the weird looks I keep getting." He paused, "more than usual, I mean."

Ayame cracked a weak smile at the even weaker joke, but Teuchi simply frowned, keeping himself half turned from Naruto so the blond wouldn't misunderstand.

The way that kid was treated was something Teuchi had done his best to counteract; even going so far as to willingly almost bankrupt his precious ramen stand just so he'd have somewhere to go where he'd be safe.

"Well," Ayame said slowly, eyeing the egg contemplatively, "You can't just keep this in your jumpsuit all the time. It'd be way too easy for it to accidentally get hurt."

Naruto's face fell.

"So what do I do?"

"Leave it all to your nee-chan!" Ayame exclaimed, handing Naruto the egg back with a flourish and darting back into the kitchen.

Teuchi and Naruto both stared after her, amusement on the older man's face and confusion written all over the boys' as the sounds of the girl rummaging through pantries and closets barely reached the two of them.

An enormous crash of falling pots and pans made the two of them start violently, and Teuchi started back towards the kitchen before a slightly sheepish call of "I'm all right" from the back made him relax.

More clattering, more banging, and some suspicious sounding thumps later and Ayame was back out front, proudly presenting Naruto with a medium sized flour bag that had a long strap fastened to each side.

"This way you'll be able to carry it with you, and if you stuff old clothes or wool around the egg it'll stay warm too." She explained, showing Naruto how to sling the bag's strap over his shoulder so that it crossed his chest. "I've got some other old flour sacks in there as padding for the moment, but you could replace it with other stuff if you wanted."

Naruto stared at her as she carefully slipped the egg into the purse-like bag.

"What?" She asked, catching his odd look as she straightened, "This'll work, right?"

Naruto didn't answer, instead launching himself at the older girl and hugging her tightly, "Thank you thank you thank you! You are the best nee-chan _ever_! This is perfect!"

Ayame simply laughed, hugging the boy back.

Another two bowls of ramen later, Naruto was off, promising the Ichirakus everything short of his first born child in thanks for the new egg bag and the ramen, which Teuchi had declared was on the house this time.

So happy was the boy that he never noticed the troubled gaze of his number one most ardent supporter and his daughter as they both realized the same thing.

If this egg turned out to be yet another cruel trick, or something happened to it to keep it from hatching, Naruto's fragile heart would break.

Naruto, however, had entirely different things on his mind.

Having all the egg's weight hanging off one shoulder was throwing him slightly off balance, and for someone who's livelihood was going to depend entirely on knowing exactly how his body reacted to different stresses it was taking a surprisingly long time for him to adjust.

Still, he was gonna be the next Hokage dammit! No light weight egg in a bag was gonna throw him off his awesome!

It wasn't until he tried running back to his camp on the monument that he noticed a serious drawback to the bag; with each step it bounced alarmingly off his leg, sometimes with such force that he was afraid he'd prematurely crack it.

Which completely screwed over his tried and true method of avoiding most trouble.

Which meant either he started keeping the egg in his jumpsuit again, or he employed one of the most famous of all shinobi tactics; Stealth.

In a bright orange jumpsuit.

Naruto groaned, dragging his hand down his face. Stealth it was then.  
-

AN;

Okay, so this chapter is shorter than the others by a fair bit. Sorry for that, but to put it plainly, it was an absolute _bitch_ to write. Honestly. And I have no clue why.

Also, thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed the story, or followed me as the author! It seriously made me giddy for almost the whole week. (Seriously, ask my husband, he thought it was hilarious.)

Next chapter we've got some action, and possibly a daring rescue (I think).


	6. The Berry Issue

Michael Brown had one love in life; Berries. He owned the largest Berry plantation in Sinnoh, and the combination of cool winds blowing down from Snowpoint City and salt air from the nearby ocean made his berries some of the most desirable berries for coordinators interested in making Poffins for their Pokémon.

And for the last three months his precious berries had been disappearing without a trace.

He'd done everything he could think of. He'd hired guard Voltorb to give any intruders a shocking welcome, set his own Noctowl to patrol the skies at night, and even stood guard himself. All for nothing. The berries still vanished, and he was starting to lose income.

Michael sighed, it was time to bring in the police. Maybe they could find something he'd missed.

A quick phone call was all it took to have Officer Jenny and her team out to his house; but almost the minute the questioning began he started to regret it.

"So your berries are just... vanishing?" the blue haired woman was sceptical, but Michael nodded firmly.

"They are, and one of my prized Razz Berry bushes has been practically destroyed!"

Jenny raised one eyebrow. "Why don't you show me the bush." She suggested, and Michael nodded.

"You four go farther out into the fields," she continued, turning to the team of police officers she'd brought with her, "See if you can find anything suspicious."

The four men waited until her back was turned before rolling their eyes. To that woman, everything was suspicious.

"I'm surprised she hasn't started accusing the man of sabotaging his own berries yet." One of the men muttered into his friend's ear.

The other man snickered, muffling it quickly as Jenny spun around.

"What was that?"

The first man jumped to attention. "Nothing Officer Jenny."

Jenny eyed the four suspiciously for a moment, then nodded and turned to where Michael was waiting patiently, "Carry on."

Once the two had rounded the corner of the building, the four men looked at each other, resignation written on their features before they followed the path Michael and Jenny had taken around the house to the fields.

"It's just down this way," Michael said, leading Jenny to a fenced in area of the field, "This is where the most potent of my berries are planted. I breed them myself for maximum efficiency and flavour."

"I see."

Michael opened the gate, gesturing for Jenny to precede him into the fenced area before closing the gate firmly behind himself.

"I don't know what happened," he said, leading down an aisle to the middle of the patch, "I just woke up one morning and came out to find the bush completely mutilated. Here it is."

Jenny stared at the bush. "I can see what you mean." She said after a couple of moments.

Where the bushes on either side of it were full and healthy, this particular bush was missing a large portion of foliage where a good sized branch seemed to have been cut away cleanly. The healed cut was a few months old, but it was still obvious.

"All right! I'm on the case!" the woman declared, and immediately pulled out a camera to take pictures of the bush and the bushes surrounding it.

Michael simply watched bemusedly as the woman darted around with seemingly endless energy.

"Are there any other bushes like this?" she asked in the middle of taking another picture, and Michael paused.

"Some," he admitted slowly, "But this one is the worst, and the first one I noticed. None of the others were from this area, but scattered all over the fields."

Jenny nodded, then detached her radio from her shoulder and spoke into it, telling the rest of her team to keep an eye out for damaged bushes and to take pictures of ones that looked as if they had pieces cut from them.

A series of affirmatives came back through the radio, and she put it away looking satisfied.

"So what precautions have you taken against this sort of thing?" She asked, heading back toward the gate.

Michael shrugged, following her. "The usual ones. I hired some guard Voltorb, and stayed up a few nights walking the fields to keep watch for anyone coming in, but neither my Noctowl nor I saw anything out of the ordinary. It seems to only happen when we aren't paying attention."

Officer Jenny hmmed, her brow furrowing. "And you're sure that it isn't just wild pokèmon?"

Michael shook his head, his brown eyes troubled. "It shouldn't be. Ever since this berry farm was established we've kept berry bushes around the perimeter especially for wild pokèmon. They eat those berries, and they don't bother the ones that we grow to sell."

"And have any of those bushes been damaged?"

A nod, "Yes, a couple."

Jenny's frown deepened as the two walked into the house, and Michael gestured her to a seat at the kitchen table.

"Lemonade?"

"Sure, thanks."

The woman barely looked up as an icy glass of lemonade was set in front of her, instead focused on writing down her own observations and what Michael had told her.

"And this has been going on for how long?" she eventually asked, slightly annoyed that she'd forgotten to ask this much earlier.

"About three months."

Jenny scribbled that down into her notepad, then sat back in her chair, glaring thoughtfully at the notepad.

A loud buzz of static broke the virgin silence, and Michael jumped, almost spilling his own glass of lemonade as Jenny reached for her radio.

"Officer Jenny, you might want to get out here, we've got something weird going on in the Sitrus Berry aisle."

"I'm on my way." Jenny said sharply, standing so abruptly that her chair almost fell over backwards.

"This way," Michael said hurriedly, and the two of them darted out the back door.

Luckily the Sitrus Berries were closer to the house than some of the rarer berries, so it was a short run, but even so Michael couldn't help but marvel at how the blue haired woman could run so well in high heels and a fairly tight mini skirt. She probably had a lot of practice.

The four policemen that had accompanied Jenny were gathered around one particular bush, staring at it as if they'd seen a ghost. Looking at the bush, Michael could see why.

Translucent and wavy, it was as if the bush was a mirage created by intense heat.

"What the..." he breathed, and the four officers looked up, relief visible on their faces when they saw Jenny.

Make fun of her they might, but they knew she was also one of the best officers any city had.

"Report." Jenny snapped, and the four snapped to attention as one began to speak.

"I was patrolling this aisle, looking as you said for any damaged bushes when this bush suddenly began to blow around like it was in a high wind. All the other bushes around it remained static, so I assumed that a wild pokèmon was inside the bush and drew my weapon."

Jenny glanced down at the hand that still held the standard issue stun gun and nodded.

"No pokèmon appeared, but the bush began to fade, and when I reached out to touch it, my hand went through it. That's when I sent out the call on the radio."

Jenny turned to the nearly invisible bush, then back to Michael, who held his hands up defensively.

"Don't look at me, I have no clue what could be doing this."

"It might be a Ghost type pokèmon having some fun." One of the other officers suggested, but Jenny shook her head.

"This doesn't fit Ghost type's usual method of fun. Unless you've recently been scared witless?"

All five of the men shook their heads, and Michael bent down to pick up a stick from the ground, swishing it back and forth through the bush that was-but-wasn't there.

"This is really maxing out my weird-shit-o-meter..." he mumbled as Jenny began to take more pictures.

The bush shook more, and all six people took a half step back as the bush shuddered and snapped back into full visibility.

Michael poked at it with his stick and sighed with relief to find it completely solid again, then groaned.

"Oh come on!"

Another whole branch was gone, the cut from where it had been removed oozing sap.

"And look at this!" he cried, gesturing at the plant, "Half the ripe berries are gone! It's just like the others!"

Jenny frowned, glancing sideways at the upset berry farmer. "How can you tell?"

Michael sighed, moving toward the bush and turning certain areas so that they faced her.

"Here, here, and here." He said, "These are stems that the berries were growing on, and they aren't dead. The berries were pulled off them, and since the stem didn't break off with the berries, that means they were ripe. If it had been from an earlier harvest, the stems would be dead or would have already fallen off."

Jenny nodded. "All right then. I think we should head back to the station. Obviously something strange is going on here, and if we can put together what we've learned, maybe we'll figure something out."

Michael's nod was dejected, and Jenny's eyes softened. "Call us if this happens again, and try to keep track of when it happens. Maybe there'll be a pattern to it."

Michael nodded again, and walked with the five officers back to the house, leaning against one of the posts of his front porch as they drove away.

Hopefully they'd figure it out before he lost too many berries or the berry plants became too traumatized to produce more this season.  
-

AN;

Okay, before you guys lynch me, I know I said that this chapter would have some action, and possibly a daring rescue, but that was before I talked to my Beta hubby and he suggested something like this. I liked the idea so much I had to write it, and the action/DR got pushed back one chapter. It is already written though, so don't worry.

Hope you guys like the chapter, this one was really fun to write. As usual, thanks for all the reviews, faves and follows, they really do inspire me to write the next chapters.


	7. A Troublesome Trio

There was only one part of being Hokage that Sarutobi Hiruzen hated more than paperwork, though fortunately he only had to deal with it once a week.

If he'd had to deal with Council meetings more often than weekly, he was sure he'd have lost it long ago.

Thankfully, he'd long since mastered the art of paying as little attention as possible, while still being able to recall anything pertinent at the end of the meetings.

"Thank you Chiuchi-san, I am glad that the merchants are doing so well."

The fat man representing the Merchant's Guild in the Council puffed himself up importantly as he sat down, staring around at the assembled council as if he had impressed them all.

"Yamanaka-san," Sarutobi continued, ignoring the man, "How is Uchiha Sasuke progressing?"

A short, slender blond woman with dark blue eyes stood, shuffling some papers in front of her in an attempt to organize her thoughts.

"Uchiha Sasuke had one of the most broken psyches I had ever seen in all of my years of providing therapy to Konoha shinobi. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I would have never believed it possible. However, over the course of the last year and a half we have made great strides to restoring him to his previous state of mental health, that is, one of a normal eight year old child. He continues to believe that it is his duty to avenge his clan, but no longer seems willing to discard anything that he does not believe will make him stronger. I believe that we have managed to convince him that having bonds of friendship with children his own age is not a sign of weakness, which has led him to become less withdrawn. He is also adamant about rejoining the Academy."

Sarutobi nodded slowly, "And your recommendation on his re-integration into the Shinobi Academy?"

The woman hesitated. "It may be beneficial, but I would recommend continued sessions with either myself or another certified mind healer until he becomes a genin to monitor his mental state."

Sarutobi nodded again. "Thank you, Yamanaka-san." With a short bow the woman sat down, obviously grateful to be done.

Sarutobi turned to the shinobi side of the council, "Any objections to re-admitting Uchiha Sasuke back into the Shinobi Academy?"

A couple of the clan heads glanced at each other, but no one said anything. Sarutobi made a small note on a piece of paper in front of him before gesturing for the next person to take their turn, promptly falling back into a half-stupor.

Thankfully, the Council meeting didn't last much longer and he was able to beat a retreat to his office, the Yamanaka clan head following him.

"Inoichi-san," the Hokage said genially as he took the seat behind his desk, "How can I help you?"

"Those bushes that the Uzumaki child continues to find," Inoichi said, taking a seat across from his Hokage, "Do you know how he finds them?"

Sarutobi shook his head regretfully, filling his pipe with fragrant tobacco and lighting it with a miniscule Katon.

"Unfortunately, neither myself, either of the ANBU who guard him, or Naruto himself is aware how he finds the bushes. Why? Is something wrong with the samples Dog and Otter have been procuring for you?"

The blond shook his head, then nodded, then shook his head again before sighing.

"It's very complicated, Hokage-sama." He finally said, "Many of the berries that they have brought to me seem to have strange chakra properties that are driving our clan medic-nins up the nearest wall."

Sarutobi leaned forward, puffing intently on his pipe, "Why?"

"Some of them seem to have properties similar to a soldier pill, but without the sudden crash that is the result of a soldier pill wearing off. Others seem to have the ability to heal various burns when made into a poultice, while others keep the human body at a consistent temperature, no matter how the surrounding temperature changes. The only drawback for the last one is how quickly it wears off."

The man drug one hand down his face, "It's like they are designed specifically for the use of ninja in battles. All of their effects have a use in battle, so far at least."

Sarutobi frowned, "Could one of Konoha's enemies be creating these plants in preparation for a fourth shinobi war?"

Inoichi shrugged, spreading his hands helplessly. "If they were showing up anywhere else, I'd say there was a possibility, but the only three people that have found any so far are Naruto, Otter and Dog. And from the reports that ninja returning from far reaching missions have submitted, there's no sign of anything like that anywhere except around Konoha. It's like they only show up around Naruto."

Sarutobi nodded. "It does seem like that. How many of the cuttings they've brought you have taken?"

"All of them, and some are already beginning to bloom." Inoichi shrugged. "Once the plants have fruited we can conduct further tests on them."

Sarutobi agreed, "See if you can get some of the medic-nins from the hospital to have a look at them as well. If some of those berries have healing properties, then perhaps they could be a valuable asset to Konoha."

Inoichi nodded, rose from his seat, then bowed briefly to his Hokage before turning and leaving; his head full of the puzzle those plants represented.

Meanwhile, Uzumaki Naruto was unaware that any conversation regarding him was taking place. He was too busy trying to get his bag of groceries from the store back to his camp up behind the Hokage Monument without being seen. Too many people had been interested in the contents of the egg bag for him to be fully comfortable with walking in plain view with full hands.

Since no other apartment manager would rent to him, even with the Hokage asking, Sarutobi had told Naruto that unfortunately he would have to make a semi-permanent residence up there, or go back to the orphanage. Naruto was fine with living in a semi-isolated area, but the walk down to town every day just to pick up whatever groceries he needed for the day was a real killer.

Still, Dog had mentioned that it would probably be good conditioning for him, so he didn't even mind that too much.

Luckily, the path that he usually took from the market area of the village back to the monument took him through an area of the village that stayed mostly deserted, so while he walked along the canal Naruto could relax.

Except apparently, today.

"What the hell is this thing?"

A voice behind him made Naruto freeze, shifting the leg that the egg bag rested against to make sure it was still there. It wasn't.

"Seriously, what the hell? Is it like an egg or something?" a second voice. Fuck.

"What'd you do, Uzumaki? Make this 'cause you can't even get a _real _pet?"

And a third. Pale faced, Naruto turned, setting his grocery bags to one side as he stared at the three kids, the middle of whom was tossing the his egg negligently in one hand as he looked at it.

"Seriously," he said, "Yellow, black and orange? And didn't your mom ever tell you that eggs aren't the size of people's heads?"

The boy on the left, Shujin, sneered, his brown hair flipping into his face, "Don't you remember Kishou? He doesn't _have_ a mom. Though I can see why she wouldn't want him. What sort of idiot do you have to be to make an egg out of wood and carry it around like it'll actually hatch?"

Naruto paled even farther, clenching his fists as the third boy, Kanko, laughed, his voice as raucous as a crow's.

"Give it back Kishou." The blond said, staring at the three with intense blue eyes narrowed. "Come on."

Kishou pretended to think about it, narrowing his eyes and raising a hand to his chin. "Well I could," Naruto's heart lifted slightly, "But where would the fun in that be?" and fell again. "Why don't you come get it you little brat."

Naruto's hopes fell even farther. The three of them were regular bullies, and they were genin. Every time he tangled with them before he'd ended up beaten, bleeding and bruised. They called it taijutsu practice. Naruto called it them being power hungry assholes.

Still, his precious egg was at risk, and he couldn't just let them get away with threatening it, or him, so with a wordless cry Naruto charged Kishou.

"Hup!" Kishou cried, tossing the egg, and Naruto almost had a heart attack as the egg flew through the air, only to land safely in Kanko's arms.

Kanko grinned mockingly at the blond, fake fumbling the egg until Naruto darted towards him, then tossing it to Shujin, who didn't even wait for Naruto to run at him before tossing it to Kishou.

None of the four heard a small voice tell them to stop, and none of them noticed the small figure that had emerged from behind a nearby tree on the edge of the canal that the voice had emerged from.

The game of keep-away was going very much in the three genin's favour until, without warning, when Shujin caught the egg it began to glow.

It wasn't much, just a short pulse of white light that enveloped the whole shell, then stopped, revealing an unchanged egg shell, then started again.

"What the fuck?" Shujin shouted, holding the egg out from himself like it was about to explode.

"Throw it!" Kishou hadn't seen the light, and Naruto was bearing down on the brunette. Shujin, however, took the semi-order at face value and turned, throwing the egg as hard as he could towards the canal before turning and running the other way, shouting about exploding eggs and how Naruto was going to be in so much trouble.

Kishou and Kanko simply stared after the boy for a moment, then took off after him.

That hadn't been in the plan at all. They'd just wanted to mess with the kid nobody liked, not actually destroy his stuff.

Naruto didn't even notice them go, he was busy running full tilt toward the canal, hoping that eggs floated, and that the canal wasn't running fast today, even though it had been raining quite a bit the last few days.

There was no sign of the egg anywhere in the canal, or on the ground nearby.

Naruto fell to his knees, gaze blank. His egg. After caring for it all these months, his egg was gone. Thrown away by some bastards who thought it was just a toy... and it had been about to hatch too, he'd heard scraping sounds from inside earlier that day... and now it was g-

"Ano..." a small voice had him on his feet in a split second, glaring at the person who'd spoken with clenched fists before he registered what she held in her arms.

"Th-this is yours, r-right?" small, delicately pale hands held out his egg, and Naruto let out a cry of happiness as he took it from her, sitting himself back on the grass so he could properly cuddle his precious egg.

"Thank you thank you thank you so much!" he chanted, cuddling the egg and peeking up at the girl from the corner of one eye. She looked familiar, but he couldn't quite place her.

"It was n-nothing, Naruto-san."

She'd said it so quietly that Naruto almost didn't hear her, but he did and was in her face faster than she'd said it.

"It wasn't nothing. This egg means a lot to me, and it's gonna hatch soon. You saved its life. That means a lot! You get it?"

The girl's face was turning red, but she still nodded, and Naruto relaxed, backing out of her personal space.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, what's your name?"

The girl looked down, poking her index fingers together.

"Hyuuga Hinata." She whispered, barely glancing up through her bangs as Naruto nodded, trying to look wise.

"I see..." he said, and grinned at her, "Well thanks a lot Hinata-chan!"

Almost as if saying thanks as well, the egg began to glow again, short sharp bursts of light that almost blinded the two children if they looked directly at it.

Soft rustling in the branches of the tree above them heralded the arrival of Otter, who bowed slightly to Hinata.

"Hokage-sama requests your presence," she said simply to Naruto, and Naruto sighed, tucking his still flashing egg into its bag before smiling at Hinata again.

"See you later Hinata-chan!"

Naruto and the ANBU vanished in a swirl of leaves.

AN;

Hopefully this chapter meets with all my readers' discerning tastes, and yes, we are getting close to the long awaited hatching of the egg! Thanks once again for all the wonderful reviews that you guys have sent, and for all the new faves and follows. It makes me super giddy every time I see an email letting me know someone else has added this story to their watchlist.

Let me know if I've missed anything in this chapter, or if I've left any gaping plot holes and I look forward to whatever responses you guys decide to send my way! ^_^


	8. Explosive or Egg?

Naruto could only feel Otters arms around him for a couple of seconds before they arrived in the Hokage's office, but he relished even that small amount of contact, storing it away in the back of his mind as he grinned widely up at his surrogate grandfather.

"What's up Jiji?"

Sarutobi looked at him for a moment, a slight frown on his face as he looked to Otter for an explanation.

"Ah, Hokage-sama," she said, stepping forward, "A situation has arisen regarding Uzumaki-kun's egg."

The old man lifted an eyebrow. "Indeed?"

Quickly Otter filled the man in on what had happened, ignoring Naruto's blush of embarrassment at his inability to keep the egg safe.

When the woman got to the part about the egg starting to glow, Sarutobi held up a hand, turning to Naruto and asking him to hand over the egg.

Reluctantly, the blond handed the egg over the desk to his jiji, noting that it had stopped glowing again somewhere between when they had left the canal and Otter's explanation.

Sarutobi turned the egg over and over in his hands, cautiously extending small tendrils of chakra into the shell as he checked for any possible seals that may have been imbedded on the egg. Still, all his searching came up with nothing aside from the feeling of something living inside and he frowned as he went to hand the egg back to Naruto.

As soon as the egg was back in the blonds' hands it began to glow again, the bursts of light growing in intensity with each flare until it died back down into quiescence.

Sarutobi turned to Otter, and she nodded.

"That was more intense than the first episode, or second." She said quietly, and Sarutobi sighed.

"All right. Otter, take the egg out to one of the training grounds and keep away from it. If it is a weapon, then it may very well go off soon and I don't want it in the village if it does."

Otter nodded again, and turned to Naruto to take the egg, only for the boy to curl his body protectively around it.

"No way! You aren't taking my egg without taking me too! If it is gonna explode, then I wanna see it, but if it hatches, then I gotta be there! It's my egg!"

Sarutobi groaned, burying his face in his hands. He should have seen this coming. This was Naruto they were talking about, one of the hardest headed, most stubborn people he'd ever had the misfortune to meet.

"Fine." He said, then pinned the boy with a hard stare, "But I want you to swear to me that you will listen to Otter and stay away from that egg until it either hatches or detonates."

Naruto nodded, his head bobbing faster than a bobble head doll, and Sarutobi sighed again.

"Go."

He didn't glance up as a swirl of leaves rustled through the still air of his now empty office, instead opening one of his desks' drawers and pulling out a richly purple cushion and a crystal ball that rested on it.

He could monitor what was going on from here, even if he couldn't be there in person.

* * *

As Naruto and Otter were commandeering one of the empty training grounds outside the main walls of the village a small purple haired girl was trying to fit an abandoned load of groceries into her arms.

It took her a while but eventually she managed to get the bags distributed so that she wasn't being pulled one way or another by the weight before setting off on the path Naruto had been taking. Hopefully she'd be able to get these to where she thought Naruto's camp was before Ko came to find her.

Luck seemed to be smiling upon her, and the clan heiress managed to make it all the way to Naruto's camp by following the path the enthusiastic blond had worn into the forest through his months of living behind the Hokage Monument.

With a soft sigh of relief, Hinata let the bags slide gently to the ground and turned to go, then hesitated. What if there was food in the bags that could go bad? Naruto-kun didn't have a refrigerator up here, so how...?

A small trickling sound alerted her to the stream nearby and, curious, Hinata crept out of the camp and towards the welcoming chatter of water over rocks.

She was slightly stunned to see a fish trap teaming with caught fish, and when she dipped her hand in the water she almost flinched. It was so icy her hand was numb in seconds.

A second path led away from the stream, and Hinata followed it, absently drying her hand on her shirt as she poked around Naruto's camp.

* * *

Naruto hardly protested when Otter set the egg in the middle of the training field without any protection and removed the two of them to the trees near the very edge. The day was warm and sunny, so there was little chance of it getting too cold before it either hatched or, he shuddered, exploded. It couldn't take that long, right?

Hours later Naruto was cursing himself for jinxing it. The egg had glowed several more times, each time lasting slightly longer than the last, but it had neither hatched nor exploded, and he was _bored_.

Idly looking around himself, Naruto brightened up as he saw a berry bush that looked from a distance like the first one he'd found. Maybe he could grab some of those for a snack!

It wasn't until he got closer that he realized that the berries on this bush weren't anything like the fake-raspberries he'd found before. Instead they looked like teeny red and yellow apples that were no bigger than a large strawberry. Tilting his head curiously Naruto plucked one of the berries and popped it into his mouth, chewing a couple of times before his face twisted peculiarly and he spat it out.

"Yuch!" he shouted, scraping off his tongue with his fingers as if he could stop tasting the innocent looking berry. "Sooo gross..." he moaned, and turned back to wander back to where Otter had, surprisingly, stayed in view.

Mostly it was so Naruto would know where to stay, but he was convinced it was because she was finally starting to warm up to him, and Otter wasn't in the mood to pop his bubble.

With a heavy sigh, Naruto plopped down onto the ground, idly holding out a handful of the berries for Otter, who gave him such a sceptical look that it was even conveyed through her mask.

"What?" he asked innocently, his blue eyes so deceptively wide that, had she known better, Otter would have sworn that butter couldn't melt in his mouth.

"You do realize I could hear you, right?" she asked, her voice mild. Naruto grumbled, scowling as he tossed the berries away.

"Wouldn't even have been that funny anyways," he muttered, staring across the field at the egg that was glowing again.

Even though the late afternoon sunlight was bright, the glow was bright enough to see it dim and brighten; pulsing in time to its own inner rhythm.

"Looks kinda like a heartbeat, dunnit." He commented, idly ripping up strands of grass and weaving them between his fingers without taking his eyes from his ever-so-precious egg.

Otter didn't reply, but then, he hadn't really expected her to. Her comment about hearing him had been surprisingly out of character for the usually reticent woman.

Naruto growled, ripping up an entire handful of grass and throwing it away in frustration. Sitting around just _waiting_ was so damn _boring!_ What the hell was his jiji expecting to happen? A gigantic boom? Some sort of poison gas? Or maybe an entire contingent of enemy ninja to pop outta that little bitty egg?

The blond snorted to himself, yeah right. So not happening on his watch.

Ridiculous hypothetical situations aside, Naruto was _bored_. And there is absolutely nothing worse in the world (in most of the civilian population's opinion, at least) that is worse than a bored Uzumaki.

Still, Jiji had specifically said to stay away from the egg. And maybe something about listening to Otter, but she never talked anyways so that was out.

How far away from the egg was staying away, anyways?

Face disturbingly innocent, Naruto hiked himself forward a little, glancing around as if he were merely enjoying the scenery.

Otter didn't move, so Naruto scooted closer to the egg again.

"This' gonna take forever!" he grumbled, glaring at the middle of the field where the egg was sitting innocently.

It glowed back, flaring brighter than before, then... something about it changed.

Naruto shot to his feet, staring hard and swearing when he couldn't see what was going on.

The egg was hatching, so he could go near it, right?

That was all the boy needed, and he was off like a shot, racing toward the glowing shape in the middle of the field.

It was hatching, it was hatching! His alligator was gonna be the best alli-nin in all the elemental na-UMMPH!

Otter had appeared in front of him, one arm outstretched to catch him in the chest. However, the woman either hadn't taken into account his running stance, or she'd been too annoyed by his taking off towards the egg to care, and Naruto ended up clothes-lining himself on the woman's arm.

"What'd you do that for?" he demanded hoarsely, clutching at his throat.

Otter simply looked down at him, tilting her head to one side in a gesture that reminded him of Duck.

Naruto looked away. Aside from Dog, Duck had been his favourite of his minders, and when no one would tell him where he went, Naruto had assumed that the older boy had died on a mission. When his gaze fell on the fading glow behind Otter's legs, however, all thoughts of Duck, his sore throat, and anything not pertaining to his alli-nin were driven from his head and he scrambled to his feet.

"Look, look!" he cried, darting around Otter, "It hatched, it hatched! I knew it was gonna hatch!"

Otter watched the blond go. The glowing had stopped, and no explosion seemed to be forthcoming, so she retreated to the trees to resume her guard over Konoha's Jinchuriki.

Naruto skidded to a halt in front of where the egg had been; scooping up the little figure into a hug and dancing around with it in his arms.

"You're gonna be the best alli-nin ever and you an' me are gonna kick _so much ass_! Those assholes at the academy aren't gonna know..." he trailed off as the shape of what he was holding in his arms finally percolated into his brain.

Alligators were long and scaly, right? This was ... soft? And hard? And... _triangular?!_

Carefully, Naruto set what had hatched from his egg down on the grass and backed up a step, staring at it with wide eyes.

"What the hell _are_ you!?"  
-

AN;

All right! The egg has hatched! For everyone who still doesn't know what it is, here's a hint. Pokèmon eggs (in the anime) have the same colouration and general markings as the pokèmon they hatch into. So no, it's not a Totodile. (Unless sometime in the near past Totodiles stopped being blue, red and yellow.)

As usual, thank all of you for the reviews, follows and faves. If you've asked me a question in a review or a pm and I haven't replied, then go ahead and pm me again. Sometimes I check them on my phone and then forget which ones I'm supposed to reply to.

Edit: This chapter has now been betaed! Hooray!


	9. Meanwhile, Back at the Farm

"Is this _absolutely_ necessary?" Michael demanded, gesturing towards the back of his house and beyond, to where his precious berry bushes grew. "You asked to bring in one consultant. _One!_ And then he wanted to consult someone else, that person wanted to bring in a specialist, and _that_ person _insisted_ that he knew someone even more qualified to deal with whatever this is!"

Officer Jenny hid the smile that the berry farmer's rant brought to her lips, turning to peek out the kitchen window until she could look at him with a straight face.

"And not only are they out there, tramping through my fields dawn-to-dusk, but they can't drive or park worth squat! There used to be a rose bush at the end of my driveway. It was an heirloom, passed down from my great-grandmother all the way to my mother, to me. Every year it would bloom beautiful red velvet flowers that smelled like nectar straight from the gods. Guess what's not at the end of my driveway anymore?" Michael didn't wait for an answer, his eyes slightly wild. "_My heirloom rosebush!_"

Jenny turned around, leaning back against the kitchen sink and taking a moment to watch the dark-haired man pace around the kitchen, his arms as animated as his voice.

"You could tell them to get out," she suggested, "I'm sure they've collected enough data by now to be able to extrapolate what's causing the anomalies."

Michael let out a short bark of laughter, running his hands through his already dishevelled hair, "Right. You know, I think I might have tried that once or twice. All I got for that was a long stream of science-y jargon that ended up meaning something to the effect of 'Don't tell us when we've got enough data to figure this out you insignificant plebeian.'"

Jenny sighed, pushing away from the sink and steering Michael into a chair at the kitchen table.

"Look. They're scientists. This is their passion. It's what they live for; usually to the exclusion of everything else. If you're that worried about losing income from trampled berries, start charging them for parking spaces, or selling them food or something."

Michael's harried expression lifted slightly, and a semi-wicked half smile crept onto his face. "Like bathroom privileges?"

Jenny's eyes widened and her jaw dropped a bit.

"That... that is positively evil." She said, and couldn't help the slight admiration from colouring her voice. "Do that and they'll be gone within a week."

"Or they'll just start using the bushes." Another voice interrupted wryly, and Michael jumped guiltily.

"Ah. Professor Oak. How are you today?" Jenny, however, recovered in no time, and crossed the room to shake the venerable professor's hand.

"I'm doing just fine, thank you Officer." Oak looked over her shoulder at Michael, "I hope you don't mind, but I let myself in when no one answered the door after I knocked."

"No," Michael said, still slightly shocked that one of the most famous pokèmon researchers in the world was currently standing in his kitchen, "I don't mind at all."

Oak smiled slightly and stepped past Officer Jenny to sit across the kitchen table from Michael.

"Now why don't you tell me the situation and I'll see what I can do to help."

Samuel Oak couldn't even _pretend_ to understand half of what came out of the man's mouth as Michael told him about root and soil compression and vanishing berry bushes and strange cuts on the bushes when they did reappear, not to mention his precious heirloom rosebush; or how none of the scientists seemed to understand the need for the bushes to have _loamy _soil, as opposed to soil that's been compressed by dozens of feet and churned into a muddy mess.

Instead, he just sat and listened, nodding occasionally and making mental note of the parts he could understand. (Usually the bits that were more rant about the scientists than anything else.) Eventually, Michael wound down and Professor Oak nodded thoughtfully.

"So soil aeration does affect how well berries grow?" he asked, and Michael nodded wearily.

"And how much the soil is compressed, how damp it is over any given period of time, and even just overall temperature." He said, ticking the points off on large, blunt fingers before glaring out towards the berry fields.

"And all those people out there tramping around my fields are completely ruining forty years of experimentation, testing and ... just... _everything!_"

Professor Oak frowned, staring off into space as he thought. To be honest, there wasn't much he could tell the man sitting across from him. By having the police investigate he'd opened the metaphorical door for all the specialists that the police deemed necessary to solve it. But telling him that now, Oak suspected, might just be the straw that broke the camerupt's back.

Before he could think of _something_ to say, however, the babble of excited voices broke through his reverie and he glanced towards the back door just as a young man in a labcoat burst into the house, mud coating his boots and a wildly excited look on his face as he darted towards Michael.

"Phone! I need to use your phone! Professor Oak is going to be ex-" the young man's sudden stop almost made him hit the floor as the mud slid out from under him on the semi-immaculate linoleum of the kitchen.

Michael looked grimly satisfied as the man flailed for balance, only barely managing to catch himself by grabbing Officer Jenny's arm.

"Professor Oak! You're here! Oh this is great! You're going to love what just happened. Quick, quick, you have to come look at this!"

Oak sighed, glancing apologetically at the harried man still sitting at the table before standing up and gesturing for the young scientist to lead the way.

"So we were standing next to a bush when it began to fade, the same as the others," he said excitedly, his voice fading out as he re-exited the house and led Oak out into the field to see... whatever he'd been so excited about.

"You know," Jenny remarked casually, "I think that's the most excited I've seen one of them since they first saw one of your bushes doing its little disappearing trick."

"Yeah..." Michael glared at the mud on his kitchen floor. "I guess at least this time there weren't a dozen of them prancing in here without bothering to wipe their blessed feet."

Jenny snickered quietly and stepped around the mud.

"I don't know about you, but I want to know what's got them so excited. You can keep sulking, or you can come out. But if they decide they need to call in even more reinforcements, I'd want to be on hand to veto."

That snapped him out of it, and in less than five seconds flat he had his own boots crammed onto his feet and was heading towards the large-ish group of white lab coats he could see towards the back of the field.

"-seems like your theory was correct after all Holmes," green eyes set in a pretty face glared over at a smug looking dark haired man as Michael approached the group.

"Naturally." Came the rejoinder, and Michael could see the woman boil, only barely managing to restrain her wrath when someone else laid a calming hand on her shoulder.

"I think we should bring in some more equipment." Someone said, and Michael cringed.

"No, more people. There's no evidence that our equipment has managed to capture even a fraction of the data that simply witnessing these events have given us."

More cringing as more voices were raised, each person adding their own opinions and ideas into the mix until they all blended together into senseless babble.

"Or!" one voice rose above them all, and Michael looked up hopefully, finding Professor Oak's face with ease, "We can take this one bush, with the sample, back to the main lab in Jubilife and study it there. Perhaps, if we ask nicely, Mr Brown will even allow us to install monitoring equipment to keep track of any other anomalies that may occur."

Shock, horror and betrayal all warred for dominance on Michael's face as he stared at Professor Oak. They were going to dig up one of his precious bushes? And install even _more _equipment?

Through the slowly elevating noise, Professor Oak sidled up next to him.

"Look at it this way," he said quietly into Michael's ear, "If they take the one, then they're out of here and your bushes are safe. And if they install a little more monitoring equipment, then they won't have to come _back._"

Slowly, realization dawned, and Michael turned to the professor, grabbing his hand and shaking it firmly.

"Thank you. Seriously, thank you so much." He paused a moment, turning back to look at large group of scientists that had all gathered around one bush. "What did they find, anyways?"

Oak shrugged. "A half-eaten berry that looked like it had some sort of saliva like substance on it."

"Oh. Heck, if that's all it takes to excite them; I could've gotten rid of them weeks ago."  
-

AN;

So here's this week's chapter for you guys! Bright and early even. Unfortunately, because I've been going camping every week, I haven't had the time to write a good buffer, so for the foreseeable future all updates will be on Sundays only, instead of occasionally one on Wednesday as well.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved, or followed this story since last week, they really do keep me going.

Let me know if there's any glaring issues with continuity or anything else you can think of, aside from the fact that this isn't a chapter about what's just come out of the egg.

Thanks again,

Darkingfire


	10. For Love of Alligators

"Sno?" the orangey yellow body tilted to one side and bright blue eyes watched as Naruto leapt back, eyeing the strange creature -that was definitely _not_ an alligator- closely.

"Snorunt!" it squealed happily, and ran forward on stubby legs, it's even stubbier arms outstretched.

"Wagh!" Naruto scrambled backwards, his eyes wide as he took in the rapidly advancing... thing.

It was kinda cute, in a weird sort of way, but he had no idea what it was and if it ate people.

It was just born, right? That meant it had to be hungry, and Naruto did not want to be the first thing on the menu.

The... whatever it was... stopped, watching the blond boy as carefully as he was watching it, then took a tentative step forward.

Naruto stepped back, tripped over his own feet and fell backwards.

"Owwww!" Naruto groaned, rubbing his sore butt and his sore head at the same time, until something touched his knee and he looked up, face to face with the little yellow creature.

"Runt!"

"WAUGH!"

It watched as Naruto scooted backwards away from it, tiny hands pulling its cloak tighter around it as its eyes filled with tears.

"What?" Naruto asked uncomfortably. "What'd I do?"

"S-sno..." it whimpered, "ru-u-u-nt..."

Tears began pouring from its bright blue eyes, and a voice behind Naruto made him jump.

"It thinks you're its mother." Dog said tonelessly, looking down at the orange clad blond boy at his feet, "And that you don't want it."

The wailing grew louder as Naruto stared at the little creature, astounded that something so little could make that much noise.

"But I'm not its mom." He protested, and Dog shrugged.

"You might as well be. You took care of the egg for months, and you were the first thing it saw when it hatched. For all it knows, you really are its mom."

Naruto thought for a moment. "Oh. So... it won't eat me then?"

Dog shrugged, and Naruto stood up and walked over to where the little thing was still bawling.

"Hey." He said awkwardly, "It's okay. I'm not gonna go anywhere... um..." he looked at Dog, when the creature's crying didn't abate.

"Try picking it up." The older man said; his voice amused. He had to smother a chuckle when Naruto awkwardly did as he suggested, picking it up and holding it away from his body as though he thought it would give him bubonic plague.

"Like this." He said, walking over to Naruto and repositioning him so that he was holding the creature like you would a toddler.

Unfortunately, that put the crying right next to Naruto's ear, and he flinched.

"Talk to it." Dog said, "Doesn't really matter what, just talk to it."

Slowly, Naruto did as he was told, talking to the little thing about anything that popped into his head as Dog led him out of the training ground and back into the village proper.

Ever so slowly, the thing's crying abated, slowly going from loud sobs to quieter hiccups and eventually soft snores.

Naruto sighed with relief. "So when'd you show up?" he asked Dog, his voice soft, and Dog shrugged, "Right before you decided to disobey a direct order from the hokage." He said casually, and Naruto paled. He'd completely forgotten all about that.

"But for now, you're off the hook. We need to take that little guy to a vet to get it checked out before we can go see the hokage, and then we'll need to see about food for it."

Naruto shifted the creature slightly in his arms, peeking down at the strange orange shapes on its back. "What'll it eat? Milk?"

Dog shrugged again. "Probably not. Most things that come out of eggs are ready to eat whatever they'd usually eat right from the start. Only mammals drink milk at birth."

"Oh. All right then." He paused a moment, thinking. "What's a mammal?"

Dog sighed, "Ask the vet when we get there."

Sure enough, when they reached the vet's office and were admitted Naruto did ask, and -to Dog's immense surprise- actually listened to the lecture the vet's apprentice, Hana Inuzuka, gave him as the vet was inspecting the newly-hatched creature.

Dog took advantage of his distraction and moved closer to the increasingly frustrated veterinarian.

"What's the matter Doc?"

"The matter," the vet hissed between clenched teeth, "is that this... thing... should not be possible. It's temperature is ridiculously low, it has a large amount of wind and water chakra constantly circulating through its body, and has no fingers but can somehow grasp its cloak firmly. The cloak itself seems to be separate from its body, but the damn thing won't let me take it off. Also, from what I can tell, it has no orifices with which to remove waste from its body. That's assuming I'm looking in the right place to begin with."

He paused for a moment, glaring at the little creature that was watching Naruto so carefully it was as if it were afraid he were going to disappear if it looked away, then jumped when it's stomach audibly growled.

"And although it's obviously hungry, the only noises it's made to indicate anything, be it pleasure, pain, or desire is variations of the word 'Snorunt'." He snorted, "Whatever that means."

The vet sighed, running one hand through his hair. "I've never seen anything like this... ever. I don't know if it's healthy, dying, or what. Honestly, its physiology is slightly more like a human child's than any animal, even with all those discrepancies."

Dog rocked back on his heels, "So what's that mean?"

"Well," the vet sighed, "Either I need to keep the creature here, to study and observe, and conduct tests on to find out exactly what makes it tick..."

"Not an option," Dog said firmly, "it's convinced that Naruto is its mother, and the hokage has said that it stays with Naruto at least for the foreseeable future."

"Then," the vet continued, "The brat will need to keep a written record of everything the creature does. What it eats, how much it sleeps, how it defecates, if it even does. Things like that. If he can manage that, then I'll collect the records once a month and see if I can find anything out about it from that. Too bad it hatched. A forensic study would be even more valuable than tests on a live subject."

The creature sitting on the table in front of the two men let out a short cry at that, and bounced off the table towards Naruto, who barely managed to catch its shivering form.

"Hey! What's going on?" he cried, glaring at the vet, "What'd you do to Wani?"

Dog arched an eyebrow invisibly under his mask even though the sceptical amusement came through loud and clear in his voice. "Wani?"

Naruto flushed, "What? I thought it was gonna be an alligator, so I might as well have one at least kinda."

Hana snickered as Naruto pouted at her, and Dog sighed, stretching hugely as they followed the vet out of the exam room.

"Here." Dog said, handing the veterinarian a small stack of ryo as Hana chatted with Naruto about Wani; every so often reaching out to stroke the softness of the yellow cloak. "Whenever the kid needs to bring it in, send the bill to the ANBU offices, care of Dog."

The vet frowned, but took the ryo and nodded, waving the masked man off.  
-

AN;

All right! So now you know. Naruto's got a Snorunt, and it thinks he's its mama. How cute is that? Congrats to everyone who figured it out!

Thanks, as usual, for all of your reviews, faves and follows. I love every single one of the emails I get letting me know about them.

See you all next week! ^_^

Darkingfire

EDIT; It has come to my attention that many people seem to think that the Pokemon world chapters are filler chapters. That is not the case. The Pokemon world chapters will be increasingly more important to finding out how the overlapping worlds are happening, and if those particular chapter are ignored or skipped because they are 'filler chapters' then in later chapters the story will make less and less sense.

Just a little PSA-

Darkingfire


	11. Alas, Poor Ramen!

Dog disappeared soon after they left the clinic, but Naruto didn't mind. He knew the man was watching as he carried Wani towards the market, wondering what the little creature might eat.

Naruto stopped dead in the middle of the street and groaned. He'd left his groceries sitting in the middle of the street when the Kishou, Shujin and Kanko had stolen his egg.

Dammit... they'd probably gone back and destroyed them, and that had been the groceries for the whole week.

The blond sighed, shifting the little orange creature so that he could get a better grip on it as he started walking again.

"Well Wani," he said softly, "I hope you like instant Ramen."

Wani squirmed slightly, watching the people they passed with bright blue eyes and clutching its cloak tighter to its body.

"Snorunt." It said firmly, and Naruto glanced sideways at it.

"Why do you keep saying that?" he asked, doing his best to ignore the incredulous looks from the villagers he passed.

"Sno?" Wani asked, leaning sideways so that it could peer into Naruto's face. "Snorunt!"

Naruto sighed frustratedly, "I guess it's kinda like how a cat meows, or a dog barks." He said after a few moments, "I'm just glad you don't seem to hate me like regular animals do."

"Runt?" Wani looked at him curiously for a moment before turning back to watching the villagers' suspicious faces with innocent confusion.

Naruto sighed again and put Wani down next to the door to one of the shops, grunting slightly as his back cracked when he straightened back up.

"Now, you need to stay here so I can go get us some food. Don't wander off, okay?"

Wani simply looked back up at him, pulling its cloak-thing tighter around its body as Naruto opened the door and glanced back at him nervously before stepping inside the air conditioned store.

He never noticed Wani slip into the building after him.

It only took Naruto a few minutes to pick out a few flavours of instant ramen that he thought might tempt Wani, and he'd just headed up front to pay when shouts erupted from the back of the store.

"What the- hey! Don't eat that! Get out of there you damn demon!"

Since Naruto was the only person he knew that was referred to as demon, and he was nowhere near whoever was shouting, that left...

Heart sinking, Naruto darted over to the plate glass window at the front of the store and groaned. Wani was nowhere in sight, which meant he (Naruto had started referring to the little creature as he sometime after it'd hatched,) had gotten into the store and started wandering around.

Whirling around and ignoring the cashier's admonishments to stop and pay for his ramen, Naruto darted toward the now silent back of the store, fully expecting to see whoever was back there tossing Wani out the back door like a stray cat or dog.

"Wait! Don't hurt him! I swear it'll nev-"

The words died on his lips as a completely unexpected sight met his eyes.

Instead of Wani being held in midair by the nape of his neck by an irate fishmonger, (apparently that was what was being sold back here. Who knew you could buy fish in stores.) there was a man crouched in a corner, rocking back and forth, and Wani sat in the large, ice filled chest the fish were kept in, happily munching on the ice that was being used to keep the fish cold.

"What the hell!?"

The words exploded out of Naruto's mouth before he could stop to think, and Wani's eyes popped open with a startled cry.

"What is going on here!?" the blond shouted pointing at the man who was still crouched in his corner. "Why are you freaking out?"

Naruto gaped at the man as he simply ignored him, continuing to rock in the corner as if he couldn't even hear the blond.

The other shopkeeper, however, could hear him perfectly well and followed Narutos' questioning voice to the back of the store.

"What is going on here?" he demanded, his voice obnoxiously self righteous, "I should have known you'd be behind all this, Uzumaki. No pets in my store!"

Completely unmindful of Naruto's protests that it wasn't his fault, and he'd told Wani to stay out front, and could he at least let him pay for his ramen? The man collared both Naruto and the orange clad creature, marched them both briskly to the front of the store, and tossed them both out the front door, slamming and locking it after them.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted, "C'mon! Just lemme get my ramen!"

The shopkeeper glared at the boy, pointedly flipping the sign on the door from 'open' to 'closed' and pulling the blinds behind it so that Naruto couldn't see in any more.

"Awwww man..." kicking the dirt half heartedly, Naruto aimed a glare at Wani.

"Look what you did." He said, "Now we don't got anything to eat tonight, and maybe not tomorrow either, if he doesn't let me back in for a while."

"Sno..." tears filled the little things blue eyes, and despite himself Naruto softened.

"Look, just..." he sighed, "If I tell you to stay outside somewhere, you gotta listen, okay? Most places don't let people bring pets inside, 'cept for the Inuzukas, but that's 'cause they're nin-ken, not just pets."

Like magic, the tears cleared up and Wani bounced to his feet, not seeming the least bit harmed by being tossed onto his semi-nonexistent butt.

"Snorunt!"

Good cheer radiated from the yellow-cloaked creature, and Naruto couldn't help but feel his own spirits lift as he looked at it.

"Come on then," he said, holding out his hand, "let's go home."

"Runt!"  
-

AN;

Yes, I know. It's super short, and for that you have my most heartfelt apologies. This isn't, however, a trend. I will not start making all of my chapters this short, I just didn't want to include a timeskip in this chapter, since that tends to annoy me when other people do it.

As always, thank you all for your reviews, faves and follows, I love to know that my story is being read and (hopefully) enjoyed.

In case anyone's wondering, Snorunt actually used two moves this chapter, one of which I think might be fairly obvious; Fake Tears is perfect for getting your angry older brother/parental figure off your back when all you did was use Disable on one angry shopkeeper. After all, how were you to know that it works oddly on humans?

See you all next week!

Darkingfire


	12. All Girls Are Nuts

Naruto had been pleasantly surprised when he and Wani got back to his camp and found the groceries all still bagged and sitting neatly next to the log he used as a seat, but when he'd asked Dog if he or Otter had picked them up from where he'd left them, the man had asked him what he was talking about.

That had left only one other person who had been in the area when he'd had to abandon his groceries, but Hinata hadn't approached him since she'd saved his egg; and he hadn't wanted to make the girl uncomfortable since she seemed to have a hard time even looking in his direction.

For a few days after Naruto had been re-enrolled in the Academy for the new school year he'd tried to leave Wani back at his camp, only to get pulled out in the middle of class to fetch the little thing from whatever store he'd snuck into to eat their ice. Eventually the vet that Naruto and Dog had taken Wani to the first time concluded that aside from the occasional strange fruit, ice was all it ate. This conclusion drove the vet half crazy as he tried to figure out how exactly such a creature could subsist almost entirely on frozen water and not die from lack of essential nutrients.

It wasn't long before Naruto asked the teacher of his new class if he could just bring Wani with him as training for Wani to become a nin-animal.

Iruka had stared at the surprisingly harried looking blond in front of him before agreeing to a trial run. That trial run had turned into a permanent thing; and when Kiba Inuzuka had realized what the blond was trying to do with the strange creature, he started teaching his classmate certain tricks that the Inuzukas used while bonding with their nin-ken. All mixed with liberal amounts of teasing and half-meant insults flying both ways, of course.

It was well known throughout Konoha that the Inuzuka clan, the 'watchdogs of Konoha' was fairly closely allied with the generally recognized genius Nara clan, the best chefs in the Land of Fire Akimichi clan, and the bug using Aburame clan; so when Naruto began spending more time than usual with Kiba, the other clans discretely sent their heirs along with to act as sort of 'watchdogs' for the watchdog. This way, all four of the clans would be well placed to act if the demon brat did indeed turn on Konoha.

Instead, all four boys found themselves being drawn in by Naruto's indomitable personality and genuine good-natured-ness, to the point where they weren't sure that they could eliminate Naruto if he ever did become a threat to Konoha.

The genius among Naras, Shikamaru was very interested in Wani, spending a great deal of time simply watching how it (the boy refused to call it 'he' until it was conclusively proved to have a gender one way or the other,) interacted with Naruto and the others, while Chouji was constantly trying to get the ice-eater to try some other sort of snack. Akamaru, Kiba's nin-ken seemed to have decided that Wani was in the same boat that he was and taken the younger creature under his metaphorical wing, and Shino simply sat back and observed them all, studying them with the same intensity he used when confronted with an unknown species of bug.  
-

Shikamaru sighed, leaning back against the tree in the schoolyard and staring up at the clouds as they drifted past, studiously ignoring the chattering flock of girls that had gathered around the last Uchiha.

"'S enough to make me gag." Kiba grunted, practically throwing himself to the ground and shooting a glowering look over at the mob.

"I don't think he actually likes it." Chouji said thoughtfully, unwrapping a handkerchief from his enormous bento and opening it happily before peering around. "Hey, where's Wani?"

Naruto shrugged, his eyes fastened on the cup of instant ramen in front of him as he bounced impatiently. "I think he's over there," he said, waving off to one side distractedly, and Chouji followed the gesture, scanning the schoolyard before breaking out in a teasing grin.

"Looks he's saying hello to Hinaaataaaa."

Naruto glanced up, following the larger boy's gaze over to where the purple haired girl was crouched down to Wani's level, one hand out so he could cuddle up into her hand like the shameless flirt he was.

"Yeah." Naruto said, turning his attention back to the steaming Styrofoam cup in front of him, "She really seems to like him. Which is good, 'cause I still haven't thought of a way to thank her."

Shino raised one eyebrow. "I do not think it is really necessary to thank her after all this time. Why? Because she has probably already forgotten all about it."

"Never!" Naruto said stubbornly, "Uzumaki Naruto will never forget his debts!"

Shikamaru sighed, flopping one hand lazily at where the stoic bug symbiote sat on the only swing.

"Don't get him all riled up; it's too troublesome to deal with him when he gets like that."

Kiba snickered a bit, tearing a bite out of his steak sandwich as he watched Akamaru gallop over to where Hinata and Wani were standing, gently grabbing the shy girl's hand in his teeth and tugging her towards the group of boys before letting go and whining softly.

Kiba knew that Shikamaru had noticed, but Chouji was still too absorbed in his bento, and Naruto's ramen had just finished brewing, so maybe if he was lucky and Shino didn't say anything Akamaru's plan would work.

The nin-ken puppy had been around enough bitches in heat to know when a female was attracted to a male, and this female seemed to be extremely attracted to the yellow male that his human pet always hung around with. He didn't understand why they didn't just mate and be done with it, but whenever he'd brought it up with Kiba, the human's scent had gotten all wonky and he'd started acting very oddly.

Kuromaru had told him that it was something to do with how that species interacted with potential mates, along with a whole bunch of other things, but Akamaru had stopped paying attention after a few minutes, choosing instead to simply go with 'humans are crazy' and leave it at that.

Still, he knew that human females found him adorable, which meant that when it came to a mission like this, he and his partner in crime, Wani, were perfect for the job.

"Sno! Snorunt!" Wani chirped, tugging on the pale girl's hand, and Akamaru yipped happily when she reluctantly took a few steps forward.

"A-ano, wait..." she said softly, her voice a barely there breath of wind, but the two conspiring nin-animals ignored her, chivvying her closer and closer to the group of boys before finally announcing their presence by tackling their respective humans.

Chouji looked up, grinning at the four wrestling individuals before his attention was drawn by the girl standing awkwardly at the edge of their little group poking her index fingers together.

"Ano..." she said, looking down at the ground, "I am sorry to intrude... Akamaru and Wani insisted..."

Chouji grimaced understandingly as Shikamaru glanced sideways at the girl, watching her out of the corner of his eyes,

"Yeah." The large boy said, "They can get that way sometimes. Why don't you have a seat and join us? If you leave they'll probably just follow you again. At least, that's what they did with Shika and me."

"Troublesome meddlers." Shikamaru grunted, and Naruto's head popped out from underneath Wani's body.

"Who's troublesome?" he caught sight of Hinata. "Oh. Hey! Hinata's not troublesome!"

The blond boy glared at Shikamaru indignantly, picking up Wani and twisting himself into a sitting position before placing the larger-but-still-little creature on his lap.

Kiba shoved Akamaru off of his chest, peering up at the now brilliant fuchsia of Hinata's face and grinning slightly.

"Hey Hinata-san, go ahead and cop a squat. You can finish your lunch with us."

Hinata whispered a thank you and sank to her knees, sitting perfectly in seiza position as Shikamaru grumbled at Naruto about how he hadn't been calling Hinata troublesome. He didn't feel like explaining himself; and did he, Shikamaru, really have to explain everything to him, Naruto; because honestly he hadn't imagined that anyone that dense really existed.

This led to one of the infamously dubbed 'Naru-pouts' which Shikamaru, Shino and Kiba ignored as per tradition as Chouji tried to engage the shyest Hyuuga in conversation.

It took Wani bouncing over to Hinata and offering her a strangely shaped green berry that looked vaguely like a pine cone for her to even slightly open up.

"Thank you," she whispered, smiling softly down at the beaming smile of the yellow cloaked creature.

"Ah," Naruto said suddenly as Hinata lifted the fruit to her mouth, "I wouldn't eat that if I were you. It's super spicy! I tried one once, and I had to drink a whole gallon of milk before my mouth stopped burning!"

Kiba snorted as Hinata paused, "You did not you fricken fibber. It wasn't even half a gallon, and you ran around screaming like a little girl."

"I did not!" Naruto yelped, his blue eyes wide, "I've never screamed like a little girl!"

"Not even when Sakura-chan kicked you _there_?" Shikamaru asked dryly, and three of the four boys winced in unison, Shino simply shifting slightly.

"Maybe then," Naruto allowed, "But aside from that, I haven't!"

Kiba snorted, and Naruto growled at him, sounding more like a nin-ken than even Akamaru at that moment before a soft, unfamiliar sound interrupted them and they turned as one, looking for the source.

It was, oddly enough, Hinata.

Her fingers were pressed against her lips as if trying to hold the sound back, and her cheeks were red, not from a blush this time, but from trying to restrain her laughter. Still, giggle after giggle slipped through her fingers, and after a moment Kiba started snickering.

That set Chouji off, and his deep belly laughs rang through the air as Naruto did his best to hold back. It was him they were laughing at, after all.

Eventually, however, the power of Hinata's mirth was too much for the blond, and he began to laugh too.

Naturally, Shino simply watched, and thus, he was the first one to notice when Hinata's laughter turned into tears, and he leaned over and poked the closest person to him, pulling Shikamaru's attention to the now sobbing Hyuuga.

"Ah..." he said, sitting up and shifting uncomfortably, "Don't cry Hinata,"

Those seemed to be the magic words, and the three other boys instantly sobered.

Kiba shifted uncomfortably. The only one of the boys with a sister, he was, ironically enough, the least suited to dealing with a crying girl. Most females of his clan, when emotional, landed on the violent side of the coin rather than the teary side.

Naruto's eyes were wide and panicked as he scooted back; putting a good bit of distance between himself and Hinata before he ran his back into the tree Shino's swing was hanging from. Crying girls never meant anything good for him. Girls usually meant disdain, which he could easily ignore, or scorn which was also ignorable. But crying girls meant defensive boyfriends, or overprotective mothers or fathers, all of whom were more likely than not to try to show the girl in question that there wasn't anything to cry about. This was usually by getting rid of Naruto in one way or another.

Chouji was the only person under that tree who had any idea what to do; and so, putting on a brave face, he shifted himself closer to the girl and gingerly wrapped one arm around her shoulders, patting her back awkwardly.

"Don't cry Hinata," he said, and froze when she turned towards him and clutched at his shirt, tears still streaming down her face, "Ne, Hinata, it's okay. We're sorry. We weren't trying to upset you."

"Yeah!" Kiba piped up, holding Akamaru up like the nin-ken was holy symbol being shown to a vampire, "Here, look, Akamaru's even sorry too!"

"Did she sit on a rock or something?" Naruto asked anxiously, still pressed up against the tree, "'Cause if she did, that might have made her cry, right?"

Chouji cast a mild glare over at Naruto. "She's training to be a ninja. I don't think sitting on a rock would have made her cry. She probably gets worse than that in taijutsu practice every day."

Naruto faltered. "Oh yeah."

"Snorunt." Soft, yet insistent, Wani's voice broke through the boys' rising voices, and through Hinata's quiet tears.

"Sno!" he insisted, and placed something on the ground in front of himself so that he could tug on her over-large sweater.

"h-huh?" blinking owlishly, the girl pulled her face out of Chouji's shirt and scrubbed at her eyes with the ends of her sleeves, allowing her hands to drift down gracefully into the proper position for seiza and staring at the ground.

"I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have- I didn't mean to burden you all."

The boys stared.

As quickly as her tears had started, they'd stopped, and now the only indication that Hinata had ever broken down was the slight redness of her cheeks and the dampness of Chouji's shirt and the ends of her sleeves.

"Sno! Runt!" this time Wani didn't bother tugging on her sweater, instead shoving his face into hers and making her jerk back slightly so that she was looking at the little creature and what he held rather than the ground.

"Snorunt." Wani said again, and offered his burden to the girl.

"Is that what I think it is?" Kiba breathed, and forgot all previous discomfort around the Hyuuga heiress as he scrambled around on his knees to try for a better look at what Wani held.

Even Shikamaru looked interested as Hinata reverently took the proffered egg from Wani and set it gently on her lap.

"That's not possible." He said his voice slightly sharp. "There's no way for Wani to breed, there aren't any others like it around."

"That's not a Wani, though, I don't think." Naruto said, edging closer now that it looked like he was in the clear, "Wani's egg was different; all yellow and orange and black. This one's just brown'an'lighter brown."

"So where'd it come from then?" Chouji asked, looking around as if he might be able to spot a nest large enough for the egg to have come from.

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe he just found it, same as I found his? Either way, guess he wants Hinata to have it."

Hinata was stunned speechless, simply tracing the jagged pattern made by the lighter brown against the darker brown around the middle of the egg.

Slowly, a tiny bug meandered across the shell, making the white eyed girl gasp and cradle the egg to herself as it took off and made its way back to Shino.

"My kikaichu say that there is a lot of chakra inside that egg," Shino announced solemnly.

"Really?" Chouji was interested, "They can do that?"

Shino nodded. "Though the thicker the shell, the more difficult it is to determine."

"That's pretty cool," Naruto said, suitably impressed as he moved forward to sit next to Hinata.

"Here," he said, reaching out to take the egg, "Let me check this out real quick."

Hinata grasped the egg tighter, cuddling it to her body as if afraid to let it go.

"It's all right," Naruto said, remembering the feeling all too well, "I'm just gonna make sure it's all right until you can go to jiji and get him to look at it. You can even hold it."

Slowly the girl's hold loosened, and Naruto shifted to sit in front of her, leaning forward and poking gently at the egg before running his hands carefully over it.

"All right," he announced after a few moments, "It's warm, so it should be alive, but you'll probably have to tuck it into your sweater until you can find another bag to carry it in. Jiji'll prob'ly want to see it too, and he can check it out better'n me, but I didn't feel any cracks, so that's good."

"T-thank you, Naruto-kun." Carefully Hinata lifted the edge of her sweater and slid the egg in between her sweater and shirt, cradling the odd shape with her arms so that it wouldn't slip out.

Chouji and Kiba exchanged sly grins as Naruto helped the girl get her new egg situated, while Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"You two are so fricken troublesome." He hissed at them as the bell rang, and Kiba snickered as Chouji did his best to look innocent.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said, scooping up Akamaru and depositing the nin-ken puppy in the usual place on his head.

"Not a single clue," Chouji sang, gathering up his bento box and following Kiba back towards the school building.

"You know they do that on purpose, right?" Shino asked, "Why? Because they think it's funny when they can actually get a reaction from you. Why? Because you are usually very composed. Why? Because it is easier to think logically when emotions are not clouding your mind."

Shikamaru sighed, walking with the symbiote toward the school, "Yes Shino, I'd gathered that. Thanks." He sighed again.

"Fricken troublesome friends and their dumb ideas and troublesome senses of humour..." he grumbled, and stalked off, never noticing the slight twitch that betrayed the Aburame's own amusement at the situation.  
-

AN;

All right, I know the last couple of chapters have been ridiculously short, so in light of that; SPECIAL BONUS EXTRA LONG CHAPTER, I CHOOSE YOU!

In all honesty, I felt really bad about the super crappy-because-it-was-short chapter that I posted earlier, so I stayed up longer to write this one for you guys!

Thanks for all the reviews so far for the last chapter, and I definitely hope you like this one!

Thanks for reading,

Darkingfire


	13. Fangirly Madness

Iruka gave Hinata a strange look when she re-entered the classroom clutching at her stomach, but when Naruto sat down next to her and started helping the girl with something beneath the long table used as a desk for that row he began to get concerned.

Still, she didn't seem to be bleeding or otherwise injured, and the rest of the students had finished trailing back into the classroom, so with a quick headcount to make sure everyone was present, he put the thought out of his head and began the lesson.

It wasn't until the last class of the day, taijutsu, that he remembered Hinata's strange behaviour. Curiously, she was still cradling her stomach gingerly, though if that odd shape under her sweater was any indication she wasn't actually holding her stomach, but something under her sweater. Odd.

Still, he kept half an eye on her as he called out partners for the day's practice session, and his eyebrows practically rose into his hairline, when, after a whispered conversation with Naruto, the blond boy took Hinata's hand and dragged her over to the teacher.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei!" he called, and Iruka smiled crookedly at the blush that had suffused the Hyuuga heiress's face before raising an eyebrow at his most unruly student.

"Yes Naruto? What do you want?"

Naruto drew closer and beckoned Iruka down to his level, cupping one hand around his mouth as if to whisper a secret as the teacher crouched.

"Hinata-chan needs you to hold on to something for her while she does her sparring, but she doesn't want to ask." Naruto stage whispered, and Iruka cast an amused glance at the girl, who immediately began stammering denials.

"A-ano, it's not like that," she began, only for Naruto to cut her off.

"Look, the egg might not be the most fragile thing on the planet, but taijutsu strikes can break _bones_. Whatd'you think they'd do to an egg?"

Hinata's blush died instantly as her face paled, and she silently slipped the biggest damn egg Iruka had ever seen out of her sweater and cuddled it.

How she'd managed to conceal it as well as she had under her sweater spoke volumes about her genjutsu ability, stealth, or just the general lack of attention people paid the girl.

Iruka frowned inwardly, careful not to let the pleasant expression on his face waver. "I can look after that for you during your spars if you would like, Hinata-san." He said gently, but made no move to take the egg. "I promise I won't let anything happen to it."

Hinata looked at him, blank white eyes searching his face with such intensity that he could have sworn that, but for the lack of bulging veins or visible pupils he could have sworn she'd activated her Byakugan. Slowly, she nodded, holding out the egg and Iruka took it gingerly before standing up and shooing them both towards their partners.

Naruto however, hesitated.

"Hey Iruka-sensei, can Wani spar with me? We wanna see how good the stuff Kiba's been showing us works."

Iruka thought about it, shifting the large egg in his arms awkwardly. "If your partner says they don't mind, go ahead. Maybe I can give both of you some tips afterwards."

"Okay!" Naruto chirped cheerfully, and darted toward the largest gathering of girls in the taijutsu training field. "Oi! Teme! Me'n Wani are gonna kick your ass!"

Almost indistinguishable from generally discontented rumblings of the fangirls, came the reply.

"In your dreams Dobe."

Naruto growled, his eyes hardening as Wani trotted over to him from where he'd been playing with Akamaru.

Iruka groaned at the exchange, tossing his clipboard onto the grass and stepping up to the side of the large sparring ring.

"All right!" he called, projecting his voice above the general babble of his student's voices. "Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto have volunteered to be first."

The chatter didn't die off, but everyone gathered around the edges of the ring as Sasuke and Naruto squared off in the middle, Wani bouncing excitedly behind Naruto's legs.

"This spar will be concluded upon a ring out, unconsciousness, tap out, or when I say. There will be no jutsu or moves meant to permanently incapacitate. Failure to comply with these rules will result in dire consequences for the offending party. Does everyone understand?"

Half the class hadn't even been listening, Iruka knew, and he sighed when everyone chorused agreement back to him. They could have at least pretended to pay attention.

Still, might as well start the fight before Naruto got too impatient.

"Begin!"

Unlike most true ninja fights, schoolyard taijutsu practice was all about the kata. If your sparring partner threw _this_ at you, you would counter with _that_. If the hit high, you ducked and countered. Etc, etc, etc.

Naruto, however, knew basically no kata, and most of what he did know was wrong, so when Sasuke shot towards him, fist raised to punch him in the face, Naruto ducked, then hopped backwards a few feet, scowling ferociously at the dark haired boy.

Sasuke followed up on his advantage, darting forward again and lashing out with a kick towards Naruto's side as his fan club cheered from the sidelines.

Naruto grunted as the kick connected, and lashed out wildly with a fist, hoping to at least hit the smug bastard this time and smiling smugly when he felt the back of his fist connect with Sasuke's cheek.

"Sno, sno, snooorunt!"

Naruto froze for a split second, having forgotten entirely about Wani's presence, and Sasuke jumped back from the blond boy, frowning slightly as if he'd forgotten something.

"What's wrong Teme? Afraid of a little guy like Wani?"

Sasuke snorted as the fangirls raged, shouting at him to teach the dead last a lesson he wouldn't soon forget.

"Not hardly," Sasuke replied nonchalantly, and Naruto growled at him and charged.

Sasuke stepped to one side and shifted his weight as if he were going to go for a second kick to Naruto's side, then faltered just long enough for Naruto to get a good swing in and hit Sasuke full in the sternum.

The dark haired boy faltered, then fell backwards, peering around as if confused.

"What? But- my legs..."

Naruto stood back, watching Sasuke tentatively push himself back to his feet, acting as though he wasn't sure his legs would support him.

A crane kick, then a mule kick, followed quickly by a side kick; Sasuke tested his legs, watching Naruto all the while to make sure he wasn't about to charge in and try to finish the fight while Sasuke was trying to figure out what had happened.

It wasn't until he tried a roundhouse that his body froze up, and he fell over again before his leg could even complete the first part of the move.

Unfortunately for Sasuke's temper, Naruto couldn't stay quiet for long, and a loud laugh rang out over the practice ring.

"What'sa matter teme? Something wrong with your leg?"

Sasuke growled, climbing back to his feet and charging and the obnoxious blond.

All in all, even with seemingly random moves becoming incapacitated for some reason or another, eventually Naruto lost, the same as every time he and Sasuke paired up, but instead of the usual derogatory insult about his competence, Sasuke followed Naruto and Wani out of the ring, doing his best to avoid the squee-ing fangirls for as long as he could.

"How'd you do that?" he asked, gesturing to his legs, and Naruto turned, obviously surprised to see the dark haired boy behind him.

"Oh, ah. It wasn't actually me. Wani has this weird thing where he can make you forget how to do things. Like this one time, we were at the store, and one of the shopkeepers was yelling at Wani, and Wani made him forget how to be mad. It was pretty cool."

Sasuke nodded, his mind whirling as Naruto continued, "You gotta do the thing Wani wants you to forget, first, but after that, boom! No more whatever!"

"But it wears off, right?" Sasuke asked, trying to hide his anxiousness, and Naruto nodded.

"Yeah. Depends on how long the fight is, but as long as you're in a fight, you can't do whatever it is Wani made you forget, and after a while you remember again."

"That's... pretty powerful." Sasuke admitted, and Naruto grinned cheerfully.

"Yeah, Wani's the best! We're still working on getting him to hit and stuff, but he's not very good. 'Slike he doesn't get any stronger, no matter how much training we do."

"Hnn" Sasuke said, frowning thoughtfully, and would have continued had a fist not come out of nowhere and sent Naruto crashing to the ground.

"Out of my way, Naruto!" a harsh voice cried, instantly turning sickeningly sweet as the owner, a pink haired girl with green eyes turned to Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun, you were so amazing! You won even though Naruto-baka was cheating! Just like I knew you would!"

"What are you talking about, Forehead Girl?" another voice demanded as Naruto began to slink away, Wani glowering at the pink haired girl and seething as Naruto swept him up into his arms and beat a strategic retreat.

After all, better a live Naruto than one trampled to death beneath the heels of one of the most fearsome mass-minds known to man; the fan club.

AN;

All right! I'm so glad I posted that bonus chapter, because it, in turn, inspired me to write this one! Hooray! Now before I get a bunch of people yelling at me for being a Sakura-hater, here's the deal.

[rant] I don't hate her. I don't necessarily like her, because the way she acts to both Naruto and Sasuke disgusts me. Granted, she's what, twelve? However, being twelve doesn't negate the fact that she's violently abusive towards one boy, and fixated on another to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if she started leaving stalker presents for her precious Sasuke. (You know what I mean, dead butterflies pinned to his door, bouquets of flowers that are weeks wilted, etc. etc.)

Either way, Sakura is an extremely unhealthy example of a preteen girl, and I actually felt genuine revulsion about her when I read the manga for the first time.

And yes, I know it's a manga, and much of the violence stemming from Sakura is meant to be for comedic effect, but still, obsession to the point where she neglects the health and well being of one team member in favour of the other, or neglects her own training just because she thinks Sasuke might not like her if she wasn't ladylike?

Ew. [/rant]

Thanks, as usual, for all your amazing reviews, they make me so happy! And also thanks so much for all the faves and follows, I hope you all will keep reading, and enjoying my story!

See you all next week,

Darkingfire


	14. When All Else Fails

The remainder of the sparring matches went fairly quickly, with the majority of the female members of the class too busy making eyes at Sasuke to even try to concentrate on their bouts.

Still, Iruka dutifully made notes, mentally rather than physically since his hands were still occupied, and called the class into a loose semi-circle after the last match.

"All right." He said firmly, his voice cutting through the low babble of voices, "All of you, be quiet."

A small hand tugged on his jacket sleeve, and Iruka looked down to see Hinata standing at his elbow, her expression just shy of woebegone.

"Oh, Hinata-san." The teacher said more softly, "Here you are, safe and sound as promised."

Hinata bowed gratefully and took the egg back before vanishing back into the crowd of students.

Iruka saw her a moment later next to where Naruto and four of the other clan heirs stood, and smiled slightly when after a moment she was drawn into their conversation.

"I said be quiet!" Iruka called, not bothering to wait for them to quiet down before starting to give out his assessments of their spars. After all, if they missed information to further themselves; if they didn't listen in the Mission Room, they could get killed on the field.

"Haruno. Your body memory is improved from last time, but you need to stop thinking. Be more unpredictable. Just because you know the kata doesn't mean that that's how they have to be used. Mix it up or you'll become predictable."

"Yes, Iruka-sensei." The pink haired girl said, looking slightly crestfallen at the rebuke.

"Takeichi. Good job following through on the openings you saw, and taking advantage of your opponent's predictability. Unfortunately, you left too many of your own openings. If your opponent hadn't stuck so rigorously to the kata, you'd have been dead. Your form is sloppy too. Work more on the kata, and less on your makeup."

The girl, her face expertly done up, flushed and nodded silently.

"Yamanaka. Again, well done in taking advantage of your opponent's distracted state of mind. However, interaction with the rest of the class will not help you in the field. This is taijutsu practice, not a contest to see who will get a boyfriend first. Pay attention to what you're doing, not who you are doing it for."

The blond girl glared at him, but Iruka simply shrugged it off. Honestly, the Yamanaka clan heir and the Haruno girl were two of the worst fangirls imaginable, and he'd much rather hold them back a year than allow either of them to graduate with the last Uchiha. Unfortunately, the Hokage wanted another edition of the Ino-Shika-Chou trio, so she couldn't be held back without holding back the other two, and the Harunos had made a quite generous donation to the Academy when their little flower had decided to join up, so she had to pass as well.

He continued up the list in reverse order, praising, and criticizing equally in turn until he got to-

"Uchiha. I've told you this before. Don't underestimate your opponent. In this case, you were fighting someone with a partner, and because that partner was unassuming, you forgot they were even there and that hurt your ability to fight. On the other hand, good job of managing to continue while disabled. Substituting certain moves that you couldn't use for ones you could was a good idea and made it harder for your opponent to hit you successfully. You may want to think about integrating that tactic permanently into your style."

Last but not least... Iruka watched Naruto bounce anxiously in place, wondering how he would take what he had to say.

"Uzumaki. Your style is horrendous. You fight like you've never learned the kata, and you are too impatient. You got some good hits in, and managed to take advantage of the openings your partner made, but most of that was luck and your opponent's inability to take either of you seriously. Your partner took too long to make its attacks as well, so I suggest working on its speed, and your technique, understand?"

"Yes, Iruka-sensei." He grumbled, glaring half-heartedly at his teacher as he led them all back into the school to dismiss them for the day.

Naruto had to fight his way through the chattering horde that was the Academy students, though luckily the interior stairway to the administrative section of the building was relatively clear, allowing him to stand there and scan the mass of other kids for Hinata.

"A-ano... Naruto-kun," the soft voice from behind him made Naruto jump, spinning in place, and Hinata flinched, cradling her egg protectively as she stared at Naruto.

"How'd you get there?" Naruto demanded, then shook his head violently, "Nah, never mind. Let's go see jiji!"

And without further ado, he'd pulled open the door that separated the administrative section and the academic section and pushed her through, following quickly and practically slamming the door shut behind them.

Instant quiet fell over the two of them, and Naruto took a moment to revel in the relief from the general babble of the other students before from the other side of the door came a softly plaintive,

"Snooooo..."

"Ack! Wani!" Naruto yelped, and yanked the door open, scooping the little yellow creature into the safety of the administrative hallway and shutting the door again.

Sighing with relief, Naruto tucked Wani against his side, carrying him like he would a toddler, and starting up the fairly steep set of stairs that led up to the Mission Office.

"Watch your step," he tossed back over his shoulder, "the stairs are all different."

Hinata paused, and looked closely at the stairs, surprised to see that all the stairs were slightly different heights before continuing after Naruto.

"Jiji said that they did it as a type of passive defence." Naruto said, "Something about making it harder for people to climb the stairs normally."

Hinata nodded, then flushed slightly and spoke. "Y-yes. Many of the buildings in the village are built strangely to make it harder on enemy shinobi."

The trip through the Administrative side of the building was short, but enlightening for the Hyuuga heiress.

Where most of the villagers and some of the shinobi treated Naruto with disdain bordering on outright hatred, here in the tower Naruto was greeted with muted caution or mild fondness. It was a stark difference, and Hinata had to wonder what exactly it was that caused the split.

She was shaken out of her thoughts when Naruto made to walk past a desk, only for the woman sitting at the desk to call out to him.

"Hokage-sama isn't here, Naruto-kun."

Naruto froze, then whipped around and bounded over to the woman's desk.

"Where is he then?" he demanded, "Hinata-chan's got something super important to show him, and he didn't say that he had to go anywhere today."

The woman at the desk arched one delicate eyebrow. "And Hokage-sama confides everything in you now?" she asked, her voice more amused than anything, and Naruto flushed slightly, "The hokage is in a council meeting right now." She informed the blond, "The same as he is every week at this time."

Naruto wilted slightly. "Oh yeah... and those stupid things take forever." He half turned toward Hinata, "Sorry Hinata-chan... looks like you'll have to show Jiji tomorrow."

Hinata shook her head, "I-I'm sure that Hokage-sama will have much more important things to worry about..." she said softly, and Naruto scowled at her, his whiskered face as ferocious as he could make it.

"Don't say stuff like that! Jiji'll think your egg is awesome! Believe it!"

"Well either way," the woman at the desk interrupted, "you'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"Thank you for telling us," Hinata said quietly, bowing politely towards the woman. Naruto watched, his expression unreadable, as his classmate quickly made her way towards the exit.

"Don't worry about it." The woman told him, turning back towards the paperwork on her desk, "She's a Hyuuga. Granted, she's more polite than most of those stuck up bastards, but she's still a Hyuuga. That means she's probably got someone waiting for her at the Academy gates."

Naruto looked at her quizzically, and she sighed. "If she took too long after classes let out, she would have been in trouble."

Naruto's expression cleared, "Really? That sucks! Why didn't she say anything?"

The woman shrugged. "Don't know, don't care. Now scram. I've got work to do."

Naruto and Wani blew a simultaneous raspberry at the woman, and then scrammed, both laughing.

Luckily for the two of them, the academy was right at the base of the Hokage Monument, which meant it wasn't too long of a walk to get back to their camp, though Naruto was still at a loss for how he'd managed to go for so long without being discovered. After all, it'd been a good long while, and still no one had even accidentally stumbled across his camp. Hinata-chan being the exception of course; but then, she'd been doing him a huge favour.

With a soft sigh, Naruto pushed aside a branch and the pair entered their camp. A few months had allowed Naruto to learn a great deal about what was or wasn't feasible with simple camping, and he'd come pretty far in terms of comfort. It still looked like a camp, but now instead of a jumbled pile of wood tossed to one side and a sleeping bag dangerously close to the shallow fire pit, it looked more organized.

The pile of wood was still there, but the fire pit was deeper and lined with stones from the stream bed, and a salvaged grate lay next to the fire pit. It was plain to see how it could fit onto the stones in such a way that it would support pots or pans over a fire.

The sleeping bag was no longer on the ground, but instead in a hammock that had been strung between two nearby trees and shielded by a bit of mosquito netting that had been hung over it. A second, smaller hammock hung slightly lower to the ground between two trees that were much closer together than Naruto's, and a brightly coloured blanket decorated what was obviously Wani's bed.

Several small trails led away from the camp, each heading in a different direction, but Naruto ignored them, moving the mosquito netting out of the way and flopping into his hammock as Wani did the same with his.

"So now what?" Naruto asked rhetorically, idly rocking the hammock with one foot, "We were gonna train with Kiba today, right?"

"Sno." Wani said firmly from his hammock, and Naruto sighed.

"You know," he said "For bein' so smart, I'm kinda surprised you haven't figured out how to talk yet."

Wani's shrug went unseen, and Naruto grumbled slightly, pushing himself up into a sitting position and glaring at thin air.

"I'm so _bored_..."

Wani eyed his friend, swinging himself into a sitting position and dangling his tiny feet over the edge of the hammock Naruto had made for him.

"Snorunt?"

Naruto ignored him, grumbling softly and scrubbing his hands through his blond hair as he slid out of the hammock and began pacing.

"Can't go bug Jiji... too broke to go get ramen... Hinata-chan went home... Shika, Chouji, Kiba and Shino are already probably at home doing whatever..." Naruto growled; glaring at nothing as Wani watched him curiously.

The human hadn't done this too often since he'd hatched, but whenever he did, something usually happened that was interesting enough for both of them soon afterwards.

"Wani." Naruto called abruptly, "You wanna do some training on our own?"

Wani instantly slid out of his hammock and trotted over to his human friend, bouncing in place in front of Naruto as he awaited the rules that Naruto would usually dictate.

"Let's try something different." Naruto said abruptly, "Since Kiba en't here, we'll spar with each other. We can use the practice kunai, and you can practise your move disabler some more."

"Snorunt!" Wani said instantly, and bounced over to where a small brown backpack leaned against one of the trees his hammock hung from, pulling out some dull wooden kunai.

"Ready?" Naruto asked, loosening his stance slightly,

"Runt." Wani said, half turning away from the blond.

"**Go**!"  
-

AN;

Thank you all for your patience with me on this chapter. I know it's really annoying when people deviate from their set update schedules, and all I can say is thanks for putting up with me.

Thank you for all the faves and follows from chapter 13, and from chapter 13b. As you can see, the first three pages are the same. This is officially chapter 14, now, and chapter 15 is well on its way.

Looking forward to hearing from you guys,

Darkingfire.


	15. Gratuitous Philosophy

Dark grey eyes narrowed in frustration as yet another pack of bubble headed girls passed their owner's hiding place.

He wasn't even really _hiding_ and they couldn't find him. And they wanted to be kunoichi? Pathetic.

A slight sneer rose to pale lips as he spotted the de facto leader of his fanclub in the midst of the gaggle of girls; directing them all in different directions as if splitting them up would give them a better chance of finding him.

Still, at least at this rate he wouldn't be forced to date any of them.  
-

_-Two days ago; Lunchtime in the Academy schoolyard-_

"Sasukeee-kuuuun!" high pitched and obnoxious, the Yamanaka clan heiress's voice grated against the last Uchiha's remaining nerve, though he forced himself to remain calm as she grabbed his arm and cuddled up to him, rubbing her barely-there assets against him.

"Sasuke-kun, you should come eat lunch with me! I made a bento 'specially for you."

A side step and quick twist and he was free of the mini-harpy's grasp, though not quite home safe.

"No."

"But Sasuke-kuuun! I even made sure to bring dried tomatoes for you!"

Sasuke stared at her, dark eyes flat.

"No."

"But-"

This time he interrupted her.

"I'm not interested."

He didn't even bother to listen to her protests, instead activating a Kawarimi and leaving her clutching at a stick from a nearby bush as he made his escape back into the classroom.

Iruka-sensei glanced up as Sasuke slipped back into the classroom and nodded in greeting before going back to his paperwork; sandwich held in one hand, pen in the other.

Each was well accustomed to the others' lunchtime habits, the strange ritual having started just after the start of the school year.

Every day at lunch, Sasuke would go out into the school yard with the rest of the class, ostensibly to eat his lunch, but in reality to see if he could find anyone sane to eat it with. When he couldn't handle the fangirls badgering him anymore, he'd retreat back into the classroom where he and Iruka would both eat.

Sometimes they would eat in silence, other times they would chat, though never about anything more important than something Sasuke might need to work on, or how the weather had been lately.

"I don't get it." Iruka said suddenly; putting down his sandwich and fixing Sasuke with a piercing stare, "Why do you put up with those girls? Do you like it or something?"

Sasuke froze, a rice ball halfway to his mouth.

"What do you mean?" he asked, lowering it and staring back at his teacher.

"It seems to me," Iruka said, "that if you really disliked all those girls fawning over you as much as you say you do, then you'd find a way to get rid of them."

Sasuke's eyebrows rose. "I thought we weren't allowed to kill our classmates."

The teacher snorted, glancing down and making a mark on something on his desk, "You aren't. But I thought you were more subtle than that. Your other teachers certainly thought so."

Sasuke frowned, taking a bite of his rice ball and chewing thoughtfully before swallowing hard.

"So what am I supposed to do?" he asked, "I can't kill them, I can't maim them... I could scare them, I suppose, but that might not work, and it's got a high probability of wearing off."

Iruka nodded, silently amused as the so-called genius worked his way through his most obvious problem.

"The only way I can see to get rid of them," Sasuke said slowly, "is to trick them into getting rid of each other..."

Iruka nodded slowly, his face impassive.

"So," Sasuke said musingly, "All I have to do, is make them think that I'm dating one of them, and then they'll self destruct? Or make them think that I'm thinking about dating one of them...?"

Grey eyes stared intensely at the desk in front of the would-be genin, and slowly a smile spread across his lips.

Iruka smirked, making another mark on the paper in front of him. It looked like the boy would finally take some initiative.  
-

Sasuke spent the rest of the day plotting, and at the end of the day, right after Iruka had dismissed them and left the classroom, he leapt to his feet and darted to the front of the classroom.

"Wait!" he called, and every female in the classroom, save one, instantly came to attention.

"I'm sick of all you girls following me around." He said flatly, ignoring the crestfallen looks on a few of their faces, "And me telling you to knock it off doesn't seem to be working, so instead I'll make a bet with all of you. I will go on a date with the person who can catch me outside of the Academy within the next three days."

And excited murmur rippled through the ranks of girls, and Sasuke glared them back into silence, "_If_" he stressed, "none of you catch me, then you all have to do whatever I say. Deal?"

Snorts of derision met his proposal from the males in the classroom, and Sasuke steadfastly refused to look in their direction as the girls all chorused their agreement.  
-

_-Present-_

Sasuke sat on a nearby roof, watching a gaggle of girls search for him in all of the unlikeliest of places with a faint look of disgust. Honestly. Did they really think they were going to find him hiding behind random dumpsters? Or in obvious places like the Uchiha compound?

Sure, he'd had a couple of close calls, but a quick henge, or even just ducking out of sight for a moment had been more than enough to throw whoever had thought they'd caught a glimpse of him off the trail. And not a single one of them thought to look up, no matter how many times they saw ninja roof hopping.

With a weary sigh Sasuke rolled away from the edge of the roof, ending up spread eagle and staring up at the sky. It was all just so _stupid._ Who cared about dating, or girls, or _anything_ when there were people like Itachi allowed to just go running around?

Okay, he admitted to himself, that wasn't quite fair. The ANBU forces had been decimated that night as well as they tried to take out the traitor, but even though Itachi'd been good, he couldn't have been _that_ good. It just didn't make sense.

Nothing had made sense when he'd had a chance to sit down and just _think_ about it. Sure, Itachi was crazy, he had to be. Except that he _wasn't_. Traumatized, sure. They'd learned about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in class, and Itachi had been an almost textbook example towards the end.

But if he was trying to prove his strength, like everyone thought, then why kill all the other kids? And the civilians? And why leave him, Sasuke alive? No matter how Sasuke turned the puzzle, the pieces never seemed to fit into a coherent picture.

A particularly high-pitched shriek brought him back to the present with a wince, and he rolled to his feet, crossing the roof to the side opposite the noise and peeking cautiously over the edge.

All seemed clear, and he was about to leap down when a flash of bright orange caught his attention.

Naruto? What was the dobe doing heading up the monument?

Sasuke watched the orange blob that was the dead last vanish up the winding trail, then shrugged and jumped down into the alley, bouncing between two buildings to keep himself from breaking anything. After all, the hospital wasn't the academy, and it would be humiliating as anything to be caught by one of those girls _there._

Sasuke quickly found that he'd been correct when he'd thought that Ino Yamanaka had been dividing the girls up into search parties, and dodging their attempts to find him rapidly became tiring, though more because it never left him enough time to do anything for more than a few minutes then because they actually had a chance. Still, there was always one place that people were extremely unlikely to look, and Sasuke found himself following Naruto up the winding path to the Hokage Monument.

To his surprise, the path branched about halfway up the mountain, the fork leading up onto the heads themselves well worn and clear, while the other one, obviously less travelled, seemed to lead farther around the mountain, though still leading upwards. Sasuke hesitated for a moment, then shrugged and continued on the clear path.  
-

AN;

I was gonna have the chapter continue a bit more, but then that last paragraph popped out and said, "Hi, here's a shot of symbolism, let me shove it down your throat for you!"

Anyways, thank's to everyone for your reviews, faves and follows. They are absolutely what keep me going with this fic. (Those, and my beta nagging me mercilessly, but that doesn't count.)

Also, if you didn't read chapter fourteen when I re-uploaded it, then you might want to, since it's a good bit longer now. If you already did, then good for you! ^_^

Thanks for all the support,

Darkingfire


	16. The Machinations of the Old

"I am getting far too old for this job."

For Sarutobi Hiruzen that complaint was a common one, especially when he was staring at a desk that had somehow been filled almost to overflowing with paperwork during the scant few hours he'd been in a council meeting. Honestly, it seemed as though the people of his beloved village went out of their way to make more paperwork for him.

Still, for all his complaining, occasionally there was something interesting amongst all the useless drivel; and the monthly Academy reports were something that he looked forward to. It was always heartening to see how the future shinobi of the village were doing.

He glanced at the top of the academy report pile and started to smile. It was especially heartening when things began to play out as desired. Placing the pile within easy reach, Sarutobi settled back into his chair and began to read.

It didn't take him long to finish the stack and a few moments after that a lit pipe found its way into his hand, giving him something to puff on while he thought.

Apparently Uchiha Sasuke's progress hadn't been something manufactured by the Yamanaka therapist, which was good. The last thing the village needed was someone that the people saw as a symbol of the village to abandon them in an ill informed quest for power. Naruto's ... partner's powers were something of a surprise, but could easily be explained away by its strange chakra, as well as making it a great deal more valuable as a potential nin-partner. Hinata Hyuuga's sudden acquisition of the second strange egg found within the village was more worrisome.

According to her instructor's reports, the girl was shy and soft-spoken to a fault; a far cry from the usual Hyuuga arrogance. Still, there was no way of telling if this was simply an act or if it was the girl's actual character without a face to face meeting. Also, because she was still in the academy and thus a child, he would have to go through her father to meet with her.

Damn.

Wani was turning out to be a bit more valuable a resource to the village than he'd previously assumed, and he simply couldn't allow more of that kind of resource to be controlled by only one of the clans. It could destabilize the delicate balance of power in the village that he had to be constantly aware of. One clan being allowed to have more power, be it political or otherwise, would be a disaster.

Still deep in thought, Sarutobi drew a sheet of paper towards him and began to write, occasionally going back and crossing things out or amending paragraphs.

In the end he had two sheets of paper that looked remarkably like standard mission request forms, and with a slightly sinister chuckle, the hokage pulled out the large stamp he used to approve missions and thumped it down onto both sheets before leaning back to admire his handiwork.

A quick word with his secretary had a messenger going to each of the clan heads (minus the only Uchiha), with an added note that Hiashi Hyuuga was to bring his eldest daughter.

That done, he gave himself a moment to breathe before creating a shadow clone and henging it into a nondescript messenger to whom he gave the other piece of paper.

Now all he had to do was wait.  
-

When Sasuke heard rustling in the bushes back down the path, he inwardly groaned, but instantly slipped off his perch on one of the Third's hair spikes and vanished back into the trees that rimmed the clearing where the village safe house stood. To his surprise, however, it wasn't one of the fangirls looking for him, but a plain looking man in a messenger's uniform bearing a scroll.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as the man turned off the path up to the top of the monument and began heading farther into the forest.

A traitor? Bearing a scroll of sensitive information to a messenger from one of Konoha's enemies?

More information was required, so Sasuke followed, keeping well back and trying to remain as silent as possible.

As they walked farther around the mountain the sound of a familiar voice shouting made him pause and reassess his earlier guess about the situation. After all, the _dobe_ couldn't be a spy if his life depended on it. He was just too damn loud.

And it looked as if the man Sasuke was following was heading straight for the shouting, which meant maybe... he was expecting Naruto to be there?

Sasuke scowled. None of this made sense. Still, better follow just in case.

"Hail the camp!" the nondescript man shouted suddenly, and instantly the noise from up ahead died.

"All clear!" came the answering call, and Sasuke's frown deepened as he followed the man around several more trees before having to halt suddenly or risk stepping out into a small, neatly kept clearing.

"You are Uzumaki Naruto?" the man asked, and Naruto scowled at him, wiping his sweaty forehead with a trailing sleeve.

"You seriously gotta ask that?" he demanded, "Who else d'you know runs around in a bright orange jumpsuit?"

The messenger simply raised an eyebrow, and Naruto huffed.

"Yeah, that's me."

"Good, I have a message for you."

Naruto cautiously took the scroll, and Sasuke had to scramble up a nearby tree with conveniently low branches to avoid being seen as the messenger made an abrupt about-face.

The messenger made to leave as Naruto opened the scroll and began to read, his expression growing more and more incredulous, until it finally transformed into ecstatic.

"Thanks Messenger Guy!" he shouted after the messenger and began dancing around the camp.

"A mission!" he howled, picking up Wani and swinging the little nin-partner around, "A real, actual _mission!_ With pay and everything!"

Sasuke's heart clenched. How could the dobe get a mission? He was the dead last! Not to mention not even a real shinobi yet. It wasn't _fair_. If anyone was getting missions early, it should be _him_. He was the top of the class, and he worked _hard_ for that, no matter what anyone thought about it coming naturally. Why? Why, why, _why!?_

Again. He wasn't good enough _again._ Not good enough for his brother to train, not good enough to be killed with the rest of the clan, and now not good enough for this. This early mission.

Tears sprang to his eyes, and Sasuke furiously scrubbed them away, glaring down at where the blond idiot was dancing around with his partner; who was squirming uncomfortably in his sweaty grasp.

Distantly he heard the little creature's war cry, and was so unfocused that he didn't even register what he was seeing until a memo from his eyes actually made it to his brain and he managed to reboot.

Somehow within the last few moments a huge pile of something soft looking and white had fallen out of nowhere and landed square on top of Naruto and Wani.

"No way." Sasuke said, forgetting that he was hiding, "Is that _snow!?_"

Moving even faster than when he'd climbed the tree, (mostly because he was falling,) Sasuke made his way down the tree and over to the pile of white stuff, his eyes wide.

Even a few feet away he could feel the chill in the air, and for a moment he hesitated. Snow couldn't just come from nowhere.

The pile shifted slightly and Sasuke caught a glimpse of bright orange. Was snow heavy? It looked light and fluffy, almost like goose down, but there was a lot of it.

He could help the dobe out, just this once.

Six seals, mold the chakra, deep breath and _blow._

It was beautiful, his family's technique; a roaring orb of golden flames that consumed everything in its path until it ran out of chakra; the Grand Fireball Technique. And apparently it melted snow really well, because there was Naruto, coughing and slightly singed, though still damp, and glaring at him.

"What?" Sasuke asked automatically, and took a step back to give Naruto some room as he made to sit up.

"What the hell did you do that for?" the blond demanded, and Sasuke blinked. He knew that Naruto had no manners, but this was bordering on the ridiculous.

"The snow looked heavy?" Sasuke tried.

The glare intensified.

"It was heavy. Why the hell did you dump it on me?"

Sasuke blinked again.

"I didn't."

Naruto scoffed, and Sasuke couldn't help but be slightly impressed by the amount of derision he managed to fit into a single sound.

"I didn't," Sasuke said again. "Where am I supposed to have gotten enough snow to bury you and that thing without having it all melt all over me on the way up here?"

Naruto thought about that for a moment, then scowled and turned to check on Wani. "Teme."

Sasuke jerked slightly, stung. "Dobe." He retorted, and stood to leave.

Naruto glanced at him sideways, his eyes full of grudging respect. "Thanks."

Sasuke glanced over at him, eyebrows almost in his hairline. Apparently the dobe did have some manners. "Don't mention it."

He'd almost made it out of the clearing before Naruto spoke again, his tone strangely reluctant.

"Hey Teme."

Scowling, Sasuke turned to glare at Naruto. "What?"

Naruto stood, Wani standing at his feet and examining the dark haired boy with piercing blue eyes, "You Uchiha have good eyes, right?"

Sasuke's eyes widened and he actually had to make himself work at sounding calm. "Yes. How do you know that?"

Naruto shrugged awkwardly, "The villagers talk. They're always sayin' weird stuff about how it's a big loss that there aren't more people around with your eyes."

"I..." Sasuke was at a loss, what was he supposed to say to that?

"Anyways," Naruto continued, "There's this thing I gotta do, right? And I gotta find stuff. But this," he held up a damp piece of paper, "says that I can have someone help me. Actually," he made a face, "it says I _have_ to have someone help me. Not that I need it or anything. But I figured that since you got me out from under that pile of snow stuff, and everyone says you've got good eyes, you could help." He grumbled something under his breath that Sasuke didn't catch, glaring viciously at the paper.

"Why should I help you?" Sasuke asked, doing his best to maintain his indifferent expression, "If it's just finding things, then it shouldn't be too hard. I'm sure even a dobe like you couldn't have too much trouble just finding a few inanimate objects."

Naruto scowled ferociously, and opened his mouth, but Wani beat him to the punch, swelling up alarmingly before opening his mouth wide and blowing a large amount of fluffy white snowflakes at the dark haired boy.

This time, instead of a huge pile of snow, Sasuke was covered in a slight dusting of white powder, but the blueness of his lips made Naruto's eyes widen.

"Teme?" he said cautiously, and yelped when the other boy collapsed.  
-

AN;

Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, faved and or followed the last chapter, getting those emails really keeps me going.

I don't have much else to say today, so I'll see you all next time!

Thanks again,

Darkingfire


	17. Hospitals and Healings

Naruto gaped, looking wildly between his collapsed classmate and his partner. It was impossible, but he'd seen it. Wani had just _blown_ at Sasuke, and Sasuke had just...dropped.

A couple cautious steps took Naruto to Sasuke's side and he leaned over, poking carefully at the other boy's face.

"Teme? teeemmmeeeee..." poke. Poke poke. "Oi, teme. Wake up."

Sasuke didn't move, and Naruto crouched next to him. "Sasuke?"

Wani watched his friend bend over the unmoving form on the ground, and something like a frown crossed his little face before he turned around and walked quickly out of the camp.

It took Naruto a few moments to realize that Sasuke was starting to shiver, and he gingerly placed his hand on the unconciuos boy's forehead the way he'd seen mothers in the village do with their kids, then frowned and placed his other hand on his own forehead.

"Well shit."

Two seconds later found Naruto pulling his sleeping bag out of the hammock he slept in and laying it open on the ground next to Sasuke. A couple seconds later Naruto had managed to roll the other boy onto the bag and was in the process of zipping it closed.

"Snorunt?"

"Wagh!" Naruto practically jumped out of his skin as he whirled around, almost falling on top of Sasuke in the process. "Wani! Where've you been!? And what'd you do to Sasuke?"

Wani looked sheepish as he trotted over to where Sasuke was half zipped into the sleeping bag and pulled a strange fruit Naruto had never seen before out from under his cloak.

Round and yellow, with hollow green spots, Naruto watched curiously as Wani took a bite out of the fruit and promptly spat it out, his face squinched up in disgust.

"What's going on?" Naruto demanded, hovering over Sasuke, "Wani, what'd you do? And what are you doing now?"

"Sno, sno sno, runt runt sno_runt_!" Wani said, and Naruto flushed. Say what you will about creatures that couldn't speak, Naruto knew from experience exactly how much sarcasm could be fit into the same two syllables.

START WORD COUNT HERE! 


	18. Clan Favours and Snow Flavours

**-Clan-**

/Klan/

Noun-

A group of close-knit and interrelated families.

A group of families or households, the heads of which claim descent from a common ancestor.

A group of people united by common interests or common characteristics.

Once, a long time ago, she'd looked up what clan meant and been happy, because that meant that her family was close. Now, she couldn't help but wonder if perhaps the famed Hyuuga clan wasn't really two separate clans, one ruling the other through the use of seals and torture. As a prospective ninja, she'd had to become inured to the fact that torture happened. As a prospective clan head, she'd known that ruling a clan would be hard.

But Hinata, gentle and unwilling to cause pain, knew that those seals were _wrong_. If the head of the clan couldn't rule the clan without the use of torture devices, then he _did not_ deserve to rule the clan. It had been such a simple solution to her, but she'd never brought it up because shortly after that revelation, she'd had another.

Hyuuga Hinata had known from a young age that something was wrong with her family. Seeing a young woman screaming on the floor as someone else stood above her had shocked her to the core and sent her into a fit of fearful uncertainty that had remained with her ever since.

_That_ is what the Branch House seal did. And as the clan heir, she was supposed to be _okay _with it.

After Hanabi was born, the fear got worse.

Now if she wasn't a satisfactory heir, she could be replaced. But if she was a satisfactory heir, Hanabi would be sealed; able to be subjected to the same agony that had been on the face of the young woman that day. It was a dilemma that haunted her, so she withdrew even farther into her quiet, shy shell.

The more she withdrew, the harder it was to get approval from her father, and the less he approved, the more she withdrew. It just kept going, getting worse and worse the longer it went without interruption; until finally, something interrupted.

A little creature with a black body and a yellow cloak that it never took off, and blue eyes a bright as those of her first crush had pulled her into a group of people her age. And not just any group of people her age, but quite possibly the only group in the entire village that her father, and by extension, the clan, may _possibly_ allow her to continue associating with.

After all, it wasn't necessarily a good idea to alienate the children who would be her contemporary clan heads.

Hinata sighed, tracing the jagged outline of the egg's cream-coloured stripe. It was always about politics with her family; though from what she'd seen, most of the time those politics did more to hurt their standings with outsiders than help them.

But now... something had changed.

She had been called into her father's office, _with_ the egg surprisingly enough, shortly after she'd returned home and been told that she was to take care of it as best she could. Its well being was now a mission from the hokage himself. She was not, of course, to disgrace the Hyuuga name. He handed her a sealed envelope, and that was it.

No telling her how she'd disgraced the clan yet _again_, no lecture on how her Jyuuken was still so pitiful in comparison to that of her cousin, and how dare she let a member of the Branch House humiliate the Main House so?

It was a miracle.

Silently thanking all the gods that popped into her head, Hinata retreated to her room, clutching the envelope and her egg as if they were her only two lifelines to reality.

For all intents and purposes they might have been. She had just escaped a meeting with her _father,_ the _clan head_, without being reprimanded. She almost couldn't remember a time that she'd been so lucky.

It wasn't until she reached her room and opened the envelope that she began to understand what was going on.

A long term mission from the Hokage himself, with pay, to determine if the creatures hatching from the eggs would be suitable nin-partners in much the same way the Inuzuka worked with their nin-ken. If what emerged from the egg turned out not to be suitable she would continue to be compensated for housing and feeding the creature.

Others would, at some point, be receiving eggs of their own, and they would all be expected to work and train together.

There was a second slip of paper with the address of a fairly well known veterinarian on it, as well as a small bundle of ryo that she assumed was an advancement of her mission pay.

Apparently this was a bit more complicated then she'd thought it would be; but it was a complication she welcomed.  
-

Dog was, despite everything, surprised to see Sasuke up and about no less than an hour after being fed the fruit Wani had given him. It wasn't such a surprise with Naruto, after all, the boy healed ridiculously fast. But if recovering from hypothermia in an hour or less was what the fruit did to whoever ate it... well then... that was an entirely different story.

And if that fruit could do that... what could the others do?

It was an interesting thought, and astounding how Wani seemed to know what it could do... How had he known that? As far as Dog knew, the cloaked creature hadn't shown the capability to freeze people before, and so wouldn't have needed that berry. And about the freezing ability; could it always do that? Had it been hiding that ability?

Dog snorted and shook his head. With the temper on that little thing he doubted it. That meant it was an ability it could learn or unlock somehow. It was like... Dog paused his train of thought, a new concept striking him. A bloodline. Like how he'd heard the Uchiha bloodline was activated. How some people could, and some couldn't, but it required specific circumstances to activate the first time.

So Wani had a bloodline or something similar? Dog nodded to himself, he'd have to keep an eye on Wani to see if anything else developed.  
-

Wani was pleased with himself. He'd learned a new attack, and managed to get the hang of it fairly quickly, even down to altering the temperature within a small range. He'd defended his best friend too, and even though he'd gotten yelled at for it, it was worth it.

He'd even managed to make it sort of all right by finding the fiery berry and showing the silly bigger-people how to use it, even if he had had to use Naruto-nii as his demonstration. Besides, everyone was all right, so that made it okay. Right?

Maybe not, because Naruto-nii still wouldn't look in his direction, and now that they were back at their camp they were trying to shift the snow pile out of the fire pit.

Though it looked so yummy... maybe a taste wouldn't hurt?

Mmmmmmm! Snoooow! It tasted so much better than the ice Naruto got for him from the stores, (probably because the stupid shopkeepers kept icky fish on it. And didn't those fish look strange? Don't ask him how though; he couldn't quite put his finger on it.) Wani saw Naruto-nii glance over at where he was happily stuffing his face with the slowly melting snow, and his heart leapt. Maybe he'd be forgiven soon!? Wani hoped so. He hadn't meant to hurt Naruto-nii, but he couldn't talk like the bigger-people.

Except... Snorunt was sort of like the bigger-people words. It wasn't like cat-speak, or even how Akamaru talked, with a combination of body language, scent and sub- or super- sonic sounds... all the information he was trying to convey was in his word and tone. Just like how the bigger-people spoke.

So maybe...

Wani glanced over at the friend he considered a brother.

It would be the best surprise ever.  
-

AN-

Before the rant (which I just copied and pasted from the unbetaed version of the chapter), an explanation for why updates are being slow!

Because I was kinda a dumbass during the month of November, I gave myself the ulnar nerve version of carpal tunnel. This means that I've been typing pretty much everything one handed in an attempt to not damage that nerve further. At the moment, it's almost completely healed, and I'll probably be able to go back to typing properly in a week or two.

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed, and faved and followed. It's always good to know that people like what I'm posting. Now, if you aren't interested in reading a semi-rant, please feel free to skip to the bottom. If you feel like being mildly entertained and perhaps learning a bit more about how I can be so inaccurate when it comes to cannon matters, feel free to continue reading!

-To the person that informed me that the Council is a Fanon thing-

I actually did not know that. Thank you for informing me. However, it changes nothing at the moment. That's like telling me there aren't any forests on the Hokage monument. I didn't know that when I started, and until I actually looked at a picture of it for reference, I didn't know there were buildings up there. I thought it was a relatively isolated area that was a good place for a kid to go if he didn't want to be found.

Because I only have the first 11 books of the Naruto manga, and I haven't watched the anime at all most of my knowledge of Naruto comes from fanfics and independent research that I've done on sites like Narutopedia, Naruto Chuushin, and Narutohurricane. (All three of which are actually incredibly helpful when it comes to spelling jutsu names correctly and knowing for sure what the jutsus do, among other things.)

So yes, it is good to know that apparently there is no such thing as a Civilian Council, but in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly sticking like glue to cannon.-

Again, thanks for everything,

Darkingfire


	19. Now You See it, Now You Don't

It didn't take long for Naruto to get back to normal, and for a while he just sat in his hammock, watching Wani happily munch on the snow that had appeared out of nowhere.

He didn't understand what was going on. First Wani defended him from Sasuke, then tried to attack him 'cause he was mad, and then _actually_ attacked him, only to fix him right after. Naruto didn't know what to think.

He knew that Wani had a temper; the little creature had used his disabling ability on him several times when he'd gotten mad, and Naruto had simply laughed it off. Now though, with new abilities that were more dangerous, he couldn't just laugh it off.

What would happen if he hurt someone? What if he _killed _someone?

Well, someone other than enemy ninja, at least.

Naruto shook his head, doing his best to throw the doubts out of his head. It wouldn't happen. He wouldn't let Wani hurt anyone, or anyone hurt Wani.

Standing abruptly, Naruto stared hard at Wani, who'd paused mid-bite.

"C'mon runtlett, we're gonna go see Jiji."

"Runt?"

Wani cast a slightly worried look at Naruto's uncharacteristically stern face, then scrambled down from the top of the snow pile and bounced over to his partner, who scooped him up and put him on his shoulders, before heading out of the camp and down the mountain.

The mission scroll had said to check in with the Hokage at regular intervals, and Naruto was determined to do a good job, which meant making sure that Jiji knew that he hadn't made a mistake in asking him to do this.

But first, Wani had a Teme to apologize to.

Surprisingly enough, they ran into Sasuke before they'd even got halfway down the mountain, and a relieved smile broke out on Naruto's face.

"Teme! You're okay!"

Sasuke glowered. "No thanks to your little monster there, yeah. Dog brought me some weird tasting fruit and made me eat it."

"Ah!" Naruto's eyes widened. "Wani found that. He gave it to Dog."

Grey eyes narrowed, and Sasuke wheeled around and started heading back down the mountain.

"Hey! Hey Teme! Where do you think you're going?" Naruto called after him, scrambling to follow after a moment of stunned staring.

"Back to the hospital!" Sasuke shot over his shoulder, "Just in case your little monster actually managed to poison me."

"Hey!" Naruto's cry was indignant, and he darted down the path, around the other boy and stopped in front of him, blue eyes flashing. "Wani didn't poison you. I ate the same berry you did, and I'm fine. Dog even watched!"

Sasuke eyed him skeptically, one eyebrow arching skeptically, and Naruto flung his arms wide.

"It's true!"

"Snorunt!" Wani agreed, and hopped down from Naruto's shoulder, pulling yet another of the strangely coloured berries out of his cloak and taking a big bite out of it.

"Plus," Naruto continued as Sasuke watched Wani carefully for any sign of infirmity, "Wani wanted to apologize for freezing you earlier. He didn't know that he could do that."

"SNO!?"

Sasuke watched indignation flash across the little creature's semi-featureless face with no small amount of amusement as it whirled towards Naruto. Watching Naruto with Wani was like watching a parent and child. Naruto even had the Look, and when he aimed it at his errant partner, Wani sighed heavily and turned back to Sasuke.

"Sno." It said sullenly, and Naruto nudged it.

Wani heaved an enormous sigh and looked up at Sasuke with enormous blue eyes.

"Sno. Sno sno sno, runt. SNOrunt, runtsno, snorunt. Runt snorunt, sno!" Elaborate gestures did their best to get the message across to him, and Sasuke could only just hide the laughter that was threatening to burst out from behind his usual expressionless mask.

"All right." he said once the stream of meaningless syllables had wound to a close, "So what's this mission I'm supposed to be helping you with?"

Naruto and Wani both stared at him for a moment, then snapped back into motion with Naruto scooping Wani back up.

"So you'll help then? Great! C'mon, we're gonna visit the old man anyway, so you might as well come too!"

Sasuke paused for a moment, then sighed and followed the two back down the way he'd come.

"So," Sasuke said after a few minutes of walking in silence, "what's this mission about?"

"Oh right!" Naruto spun around and began walking backwards down the path, keeping his bright blue eyes fixed on Sasuke's face as he walked. "So okay, you know how I was started the Academy a year ago? And then I dropped out?"

Sasuke frowned, vaguely recalling something to that effect. "Sure?" he said, and Naruto nodded.

"That's 'cause I found Wani, and Daikoku-sensei is an asshole that tried to break him, 'cause he was just an egg. So I dropped out so that I could keep Wani away from everyone until he hatched and could take care of himself. I thought he was gonna be an alligator, but meh, whatever. He's awesome anyway."

Sasuke frowned, his mind instantly going to the large, egg-shaped thing he'd recently seen someone else holding. "Does this have anything to do with the thing Iruka-sensei was holding during taijutsu practise today?"

Naruto nodded happily, "Yup! Wani found it for Hinata-chan."

"So what?"

"Jiji wants us to find more."

"How is that hard? Just get Wani to show you where he found the last one."

Naruto sighed, spinning back around to walk normally and maneuvering himself so that he was next to the Uchiha.

"It doesn't work like that. See, the eggs are weird. They only show up for a little while, an' then they vanish. I've seen a bunch of them since I found Wani's but I never messed with them, and if I watch careful enough, I can see 'em disappear."

Sasuke scoffed. "I knew you were a dobe, Dobe, but I didn't know you were delusional too. Seriously, just go to where you found Wani's egg, and grab however many the Hokage's ordered you to get. You don't even need my help."

Naruto flushed, stopping dead in the middle of the path. "I am not delusional!" he shouted, and Wani jumped down off his shoulder, puffing himself up with indignation.

"Suuuure you aren't." Sasuke drawled, "You just said that you've found disappearing eggs. That sure as hell sounds delusional to me."

"I'm not delusional and I can prove it! C'mon!"

And with that, the blond grabbed Sasuke's wrist and pulled him off the path and into the forest.

After a few feet, Sasuke simply gave up trying to pull free. Somehow Naruto had developed a grip like a vise, and no amount of twisting or tugging was doing anything other than making the skin on his wrist red. So Sasuke simply followed Naruto and seethed, silently promising retribution as soon as he was free.

Except he suddenly was, and Naruto had whirled around with his arms folded across his chest as he stared at him.

"All right Teme," he said, "How many eggs do you see?"

Sasuke stared at him.

"What?"

"Eggs." Naruto said impatiently, gesturing around at the tiny clearing he'd stopped in, "How many of them do you see?" he paused for a moment, then added, "They'll be just smaller than your head."

Wani chuffed slightly under his breath, and Sasuke glared at the little thing for a moment before glancing around the clearing quickly.

"Are you blind, Dobe?" he demanded, "There's nothing here."

Naruto sighed, then held up his hands.

"Just, just stand there, okay? Don't move."

Sasuke scowled, but held still as Naruto lifted Wani onto his shoulders and walked over to a tree nearby that had a low crotch. Wani carefully lifted _something_ out and the two walked back over to Sasuke.

"This was there the whole time." Naruto said, and Wani held out what looked like a washed out outline of a large egg.

Sasuke stared at it. It had been sitting in plain sight. Or at least, Wani had taken it from plain sight, so why hadn't he been able to see it?

Slowly the colour of the egg began to strengthen, and Sasuke began to get an idea of how he'd missed it before, even if the thing was slowly turning bright blue.

"It's camouflaged?" he asked, and Naruto shrugged, turning around and carefully putting the egg back where he'd found it.

"Dunno. 'Smore like it's not really there until someone picks it up. Still, hopefully it'll fade back and the mom won't be too upset that it was disturbed."

"How'd you see it then?" Sasuke demanded, still more focused on the fact that the Dobe had been able to see something he hadn't.

"Practise," Naruto said, turning and beginning to lead Sasuke and Wani out of the clearing, "I know what to look for, and it's easier to look for outlines than details if you can't see the details. Plus I'm just that badass."

He grinned the last bit, and Sasuke bit back a scoff.

"What do you mean, it's easier to look for outlines?"

Naruto paused for a moment, and Sasuke passed him, confident in his ability to re-find the main path down the mountain. " 'Slike, you know how...wait... um... Well, you know camouflage? Not the crappy stuff the civvie kids play with, but the real camouflage? It's made to break up your outline. To um..."

He huffed in frustration. "You're all whole and solid, right? And a forest isn't. It's got bits in front of other bits, and leaves falling, and twigs moving in the wind. Stuff like that. People are solid. They can't have that many layers, right? So camouflage is to break up the lines, and to trick people's eyes into seeing the layers that aren't there without using genjutsu. Get it?"

Sasuke nodded slowly, "So the eggs don't do that, which means that if you look for an egg shaped outline, you'll find it easier?"

Naruto looked relieved. "Right!"

"Huh..."

Sasuke was quiet as they reached the path, and the whole rest of the way back down the mountain as he went over everything in his head. He'd never actually thought about how camouflage worked, even if he had known that one day he would probably be using it.

If it did work the way the dobe said it did, then maybe he could even work some of it into his normal clothes.

Maybe.

* * *

AN;

Yeah, I know, I'm a horrible person. Rest assured, however, that I am not dead, and neither are my fics. Updates will be sporadic though, since all inspiration has deserted me. I am sorry about that, since that's one of the things I hate the most. However, in this I think I'm just going to have to be hypocritical and say, "Oh well."

Hope you enjoy the update, and I'll try to have another relatively soon.

Be well,

Darkingfire.


End file.
